Germany could be without Schweinsteiger

Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger could be a doubt for the European Championship semi-finals.

The Bayern Munich star has been carrying an ankle niggle throughout the tournament but has so far played through the pain barrier.

Schweinsteiger picked up the knock in February which he revealed did not "optimally heal" and was giving him problems when it came to small movements.

"Honestly, I am worried about my ankle," he told a German Sunday newspaper.

"But the time has not come for me to take it easy. We hopefully have two more games, I will fight through it. After that, I will see to it that I finally get healthy again."

The 27-year-old admitted he would not blame coach Joachim Low for leaving him out of the semi-final against the winners of Sunday's England-Italy clash.

"If the national team coach decided that way, I wouldn't have a problem with that," said Schweinsteiger, who could not manage to train fully for the quarter-final with Greece.

"Against Greece, I made some bad passes that would otherwise never occur," he added. "Such errors should not happen to a player like me."

Germany captain Philipp Lahm expects Schweinsteiger to play but admitted: "It's true, having had to miss three training sessions makes things a bit unclear for him.

"We need fit players in the semi-finals, we can't have anyone who is missing three or four percent. Having said that, he knows his body as well as anyone and I'm sure he'll be on that pitch on Thursday evening."