Having played as Real Madrid won the 2014 UEFA Champions League, Sami Khedira had a bittersweet experience with Germany a few weeks later, pulling up injured during the warm-up before his country’s FIFA World Cup final win against Argentina.
“I hurt my calf during the warm-up; I could have tried to play, but I had to put my team first,” he said afterwards. “The moment I realised I wouldn’t play was the most devastating of my career.”