Mario Gotze in fresh injury blow with Dortmund star set to be out until next year after ankle ligament tear

BORUSSIA DORTMUND'S jinxed midfielder Mario Gotze is out unil January at the earliest after tearing ankle ligaments.

The Germany star went off injured against Schalke on Saturday after bagging Dortmund's third goal in an extraordinary 4-4 draw.

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Former Bayern Munich attacker Gotze been beset by health problems since last year.

And a statment from his club said: "Bad news for Borussia Dortmund: midfielder Mario Gotze sustained partial ligament tears in his upper and lower ankle in the Bundesliga match against Schalke 04 on Saturday.

"It is estimated that the 25-year-old will be out of action for approximately six weeks.

"At the very earliest, he could be back with the squad for the start of the second half of the season on 14 January 2018, when BVB play host to VfL Wolfsburg."

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Gotze, whose 17 goals in 63 internationals includes the World Cup final winner aganst Argentina in 2014, might now have anxious feelings about making Russia 2018 after his latest misfortune.

His weekend injury was overshadowed, though, by visitors Schalke recovering from 4-0 down with 29 minutes left to snatch a point four minutes into stoppage time.

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Dortmund completed their goal spree inside the first 25 minutes.

But their opening scorer, striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, was sent off after Schalke pulled it back to 4-2.

And Dortmund's miserable run of one point from four Bundesliga games was compounded when centre-back Naldo nodded Schalke's last-gasp leveller.

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Gotze will now hope for a clean run of health and form in the second half of the season, which starts on January 14 after the winter break.

But after returning to Dortmund from Bayern in 2016, Gotze has had calf, knee and adductor problems.

And he sat out most of last term with a rare metabolic disorder.

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