FRANKFURT AM MAIN - Michael Ballack has earned a recall to the Germany squad for their friendly against Austria next Wednesday.
The Chelsea midfielder last appeared for his national team on March 24 last year in a 2-1 win over the Czech Republic.
Since then, he has been blighted by injury, but has recently returned to play regularly for the Blues, scoring the winning goal in their 1-0 Premier League win over Reading on Wednesday.
The Germany captain will lead his country out for their first fixture of 2008 in Vienna on February 6.
"We are delighted that Michael is fully fit and returns to the national team after such a long time out," said Germany coach Joachim Low.
"Since his comeback, he has performed strongly for Chelsea and we hope he can continue this positive development with us.
"As captain and a leading player, he certainly plays a very important role in our plans for Euro 2008."
There were two new names in Low's first squad selection of 2008 with Schalke duo Jermaine Jones and Heiko Westermann also called up.
"Both have deserved this call-up with their consistently good performances for Schalke," added Low.
"We have been watching Jermaine Jones for a long time and picked him for the Cyprus and Wales games, only for him to have to drop out due to injury.
"We hope that nothing crops up again and that he can join us this time, since he is an alternative in the defensive midfield position with the loss of Torsten Frings."
As well as Bremen midfielder Frings, Low is unable to call on Christoph Metzelder, Arne Friedrich, Marcell Jansen, Clemens Fritz, Serdar Tasci or Christian Pander.
However, the Germany coach will take a chance on Bayern Munich striker Lukas Podolski, who is currently labouring with a back problem.
"Lukas has started training again with Bayern already and, according to the doctors, he is 100% fit to play," said Low.
"As with all of the players who have had knocks recently, we will have to decide if he can indeed play and will not be taking any risk whatsoever."
After facing Austria, Germany have three further games between now and the start of Euro 2008 in June.
They have arranged friendlies against Switzerland, Belarus and Serbia before taking on Poland in Klagenfurt on June 8.
