Dortmund's Guendogan won't play this season - Klopp

BERLIN (Reuters) - Borussia Dortmund's Germany midfielder Ilkay Guendogan will not recover from a long-term back injury in time to play again this season, coach Juergen Klopp said on Thursday, all but ruling him out of the World Cup. The creative midfielder has not played since August last year after a back injury flared up again but had hoped to play some games towards the end of the Bundesliga campaign to have a chance of travelling with the national team to Brazil. "This season is too soon for him," Klopp told reporters. "The situation has not changed. He's still recovering." Germany coach Joachim Loew had said he would only choose players who were fully fit to cope with the different climate in South America, the earlier kickoff times and the long distances between matches at the finals. Germany have been drawn with Portugal, Ghana and the United States in the group stage of the tournament starting in June. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)