Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Ander Ter Stegen has sent a classy message to former teammate Dani Alves after the Brazilian was ruled out of the summer World Cup. Alves sustained anterior cruciate ligament damage to his right knee during the Coupe de France final for Paris Saint-Germain and the club have now confirmed that he will be out for the long-term with a surgery required.

As such, a number of current and former players have shown their sympathy towards the Brazil international and Ter Stegen did the same on Twitter, posting: “Not just football will miss you at the @FIFAWorldCup , also your good crazy mood @DaniAlvesD2 ! There’s never a good time to get injured, but keep your head high + positive mind as you always do. You will be back in no time to keep lifting trophies!”

Alves had been expecting to play a key role for Brazil at the World Cup finals but he will now instead have an operation on the damage which is scheduled for mid-June. In his absence, Manchester City’s Danilo appears the prime choice to start on the right side of the defence irrespective of his restricted gametime during the previous campaign.

Meanwhile, Ter Stegen has also been picked by Joachim Loew for Germany’s defence of the World Cup title but the goalkeeper is likely to play second fiddle to Manuel Neuer during the tournament. A couple of weeks back, there were doubts whether Neuer would even be picked but the 32-year-old managed to impress on his comeback friendly against Austria, which Germany lost by a surprise 2-1 scoreline despite opening the scoresheet.

Brazil and Germany have been highlighted among the World Cup favourites alongside Spain but they are doubts whether La Roja can motivate themselves following the recent happenings. The Spanish FA took the surprise decision to sack Julen Lopetegui on the eve of the World Cup and it will be interesting to see how they will fare at the tournament.