What's going on with Kai Havertz?

Once the darling of German football, Kai Havertz is struggling to get game time for club and country. So what's gone wrong for the young prodigy from Aachen?

There were a number of winners and losers in Germany’s 1-1 draw with Spain on Sunday night. We covered most of them in our main podcast this week, but one player that undoubtedly stands out simply because he played no part in the match is none other than Chelsea forward Kai Havertz. 

Rather tellingly, Hansi Flick not only dropped the 23-year-old attacker ahead of the crunch match, but when his side were chasing a late equaliser in the second half the Germany head coach instead turned to Werder Bremen target man Niclas Füllkrug. And, most worryingly for Havertz, it proved to be the correct decision. 

While a point against one of the best squads in international football should certainly be celebrated, the manner in which Germany got over the finish line now puts Flick in a bit of a pickle. Does he dare bring his talented, young attacker in from the cold or stick with a proven tactic that fans are undoubtedly clamouring for? It seems more than likely that he’ll go with the latter, leaving the former Bayer Leverkusen star in some sort of World Cup purgatory. Which, naturally, leads to a simple question: how did it all come to this?