Bayern run hits Low's plans

Bayern Munich's run to the Champions League final has affected Germany's Euro 2012 plans.

Germany coach Joachim Low will be without around a third of his squad for the first few weeks of preparations for Euro 2012.

Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Jerome Boateng, Manuel Neuer, Holger Badstuber, Thomas Muller and Toni Kroos, assuming all form part of Low's final 23-man party, will be delayed in joining up with the squad due to their involvement in the Champions League final against Chelsea on May 19.

The Germany squad will be announced on May 7 with the players getting together three days later for a training camp in Sardinia between May 11 and May 18, before spending a further week in France.

They have also scheduled a friendly against Switzerland on May 26, and Low does not expect to be able to count on his Bayern contingent until after that game.

"If they do come, then they are not going to be ready to play immediately," Low told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

"They will first need to catch their breath and we will have to decide when they start training with us.

"It would have been ideal to have three-and-a-half weeks together with the full squad, but I just have to deal with the situation."

Low nevertheless welcomed Bayern's qualification to the final as he believes victory would give the squad "a good feeling" ahead of the start of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine on June 8.