Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger hopes that he has now put his injury problems in the past.

Schweinsteiger had been struggling with a calf problem in the build-up to the tournament, but he was deemed fit enough to play in the opener against Portugal and he looked to be back to his best during the 2-1 victory over Netherlands on Wednesday.

"I could never really train at 100%," he said. "Things were okay in the games, but it is always difficult if you cannot train like you want to. I hope that's a thing of the past now."

Germany have taken all six points from their first two games, with Mario Gomez netting three goals, and Schweinsteiger is delighted with the way his Bayern Munich team-mate has performed.

“Mario has played a great season for Bayern Munich and, as we saw against Portugal and Holland, he is very important for the team with his goals,” he said.

On the opening goal against Netherlands, Schweinsteiger added: “To be honest, we did not expect him to take the ball like that and score. I was a bit shocked to begin with. If he keeps doing that, we have to be careful he doesn't defect to Brazil.

“It's important for us that we have a striker who needs hardly any chance to score a goal. At the moment, we have the feeling that when we send the ball forwards, Mario is always there.”

Although Gomez is excelling, many had expected Lazio’s Miroslav Klose to start the tournament as first-choice striker.

Schweinsteiger said: “I think we have not only a good bench but a very, very good bench. There are other players in the squad too - Miroslav Klose, for example, is also important for the team. I think other nations would be delighted to have two strikers like them.”