STRIKER Max Kruse has revealed he was axed from Germany’s World Cup-winning squad… after being caught with a sex worker in London.
The former Borussia Monchengladbach star, 36, won 14 caps for his country.
Kruse was part of Joachim Low’s squad when they took on England at Wembley in November 2013.
But team bosses caught him in his hotel room with an escort on the eve of the game.
Kruse confessed he often used to hire vice girls on away trips, but usually booked separate rooms for them.
He told German TV’s Big Brother that he was allowed to start in Die Mannschaft’s 1-0 win.
However, Low then dumped the striker from the German squad that went on to lift the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Kruse recalled: “We had a poker game at the team hotel, and there was a relaxed atmosphere.
“Then someone said, ‘Max, why not order a woman to come up to your room?’
“I went back to my room. She arrived, I had an uneasy feeling, but we got talking.
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“We were together for five minutes when there was a knock on the door. It was Hansi Flick, the assistant manager, and the team coordinator Oliver Bierhoff.
“They told me: ‘Send her away – we’ll talk about this in the morning.’
“I hadn’t been sensible enough – I had simply told her to come to my room.
“Normally I would always be clever and book an extra room, on a different floor.
“My bosses told me the next day: ‘We’re happy with your performances on the pitch, but if this story comes out it will create a really bad image.
“‘You can’t do something like this. Either focus fully on your football, or else there’ll be no World Cup for you next year.’
“I behaved myself really well for the rest of the season, but still found myself cut from the national squad.
“I was gobsmacked. It would have been amazing to be part of the squad that won the World Cup.
“There have been plenty of other players who have invited escorts to their hotel rooms.
“But maybe they have been a bit cleverer than me in the ways how they did it.”
Controversial Kruse has made a second career as a poker professional during his football career.
Newly retired, the former Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg ace once lost £65,000 in winnings when he left his cash in the back of a taxi.
The ex-forward was also forced to build a chicken coop in dungarees and was fined after his Nutella addiction was exposed in 2016.
All three incidents came in the same week as he lost his poker winnings during his time at Wolfsburg.
