Stability has recently been in short supply in Germany's women's national team. Through coaching confusion, postmortems of their World Cup group stage exit in 2023 and the international retirements of stalwarts Svenja Huth and Melanie Leupolz, Alexandra Popp has been one of very few constants.

Although the Germany captain, 33, will miss Friday's Euro 2025 qualifier against Iceland because of a minor foot ailment, she is poised to lead a new-look Germany squad hoping to recapture Olympic gold in Paris. The Wolfsburg striker is the lone player left from Germany's gold medal triumph at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

But with so much instability, Popp can't stand alone. With Sara Däbritz also absent through injury, interim head coach Horst Hrubesch, who will give way to Christian Wück after the Olympics, will require new leaders to emerge during the Games.

One of those may well be midfielder Sjoeke Nüsken, a member of the Chelsea squad that won England's Women's Super League.

The 23-year-old made her Germany debut in 2021 but missed out on the squad for the........

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