Mario Gomez has pulled out of the Germany squad for their upcoming matches with Austria and Poland due to injury.
The Bayern Munich forward pulled an abductor muscle during Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win over Zurich in the Champions League last week.
And although he was able to play for the Bavarians at the weekend, and score a hat-trick in a 3-0 win, he has opted to rest the injury rather than play for Germany.
He informed national coach Joachim Low of his decision yesterday.
As a result, Low has called up Stuttgart striker Cacau to maintain a 23-man squad and give him an alternative in attack alongside Miroslav Klose.
Gomez has scored a total of 19 goals in 47 games for Germany while Cacau has netted four times in 18 matches.
Germany host Austria in Gelsenkirchen on Friday, knowing a win would see them qualify for Euro 2012.
They then travel to Gdansk where they face Poland in an international friendly next Tuesday.