Knee injury rules Boateng out of Euro 2012 games

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany defender Jerome Boateng is out of next month’s opening Euro 2012 qualifiers with a knee injury – aggravated by a clumsy air stewardess, he revealed on Saturday.

With Germany facing Belgium in Brussels on September 3 and Azerbaijan in Cologne on September 7, Boateng has been sidelined for the next month, partly because of a bizarre accident on a flight from Copenhagen.

The Manchester City defender must wait at least another month for his debut in the English Premier League since his 12.5 million transfer from Hamburg – because of an accident with an airplane’s drinks trolley.

He injured his knee in Germany’s 2-2 draw against Denmark in a friendly on August 11 and then had the injury aggravated when a stewardess ran her drinks trolley into Boateng’s knee by accident on the flight home.

“It’s annoying. I imagined my start at Manchester City to be quite different, of course,” said the 22-year-old on the website Sport1.

“Next Wednesday, I’m up travelling to see (the German team’s doctor) Dr Muller-Wohlfahrt in Munich for treatment.

“Even in my first game with Manchester against Valencia (in a friendly), I had problems with the knee from the match in Copenhagen.”