"Let me play the goalkeeper, Neuer!" German internationals joke about Kramer's concussion in World Cup final

Christoph Kramer was forced to leave the World Cup final match between Germany and Argentina.

Almost three months ago, German International Christoph Kramer was taken off the pitch after suffering a concussion during the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and there were reports that Kramer had forgotten that he was playing in the final, and behaved abnormally while he was on the pitch.

Kramer had earlier clashed with Argentina defender Ezequiel Garay which led to a concussion. Following the match, referee Nicola Rizzoli even admitted that Kramer had come to him to enquire if he was playing in the final.

"Shortly after he'd been struck by Garay, Kramer came to me, asking 'ref, is this the final?'” he told Gazzetta dello Sport. "I thought he was joking so I asked him to repeat the question, and he said: 'I need to know if this is really the final.' After I said 'yes', he was a bit stunned and said: 'Thanks, that's important to know.'”

Rizzoli who was concerned informed on-field Bastian Schweinsteiger, and Kramer was eventually substituted off. "I informed [Bastian] Schweinsteiger and they replaced Kramer."

Recently, a few German Internationals including skipper Philipp Lahm spoke about the incident with Sports Studio in one of their comedy sketches.

The skit involved Lahm, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and forward Thomas Muller with each of them with their own version of the incident.

Neuer said, "He was fine until I saw him acting strange. Then he came to me and said ‘Manu, let me play as the goalkeeper’."

If that is not bizarre enough, Lahm added, “I wasn’t worried at first, he played normally. But things started when he came to me and said he wanted to take the captain band from my arm. I thought ‘what’s going on here’. When he wanted to trade shirts with the ref I thought ‘it’s enough now’.”

Muller didn’t shy away from sharing his own experience either, stating, “Until now you only know that he asked me if this is the final but sadly that’s only the most harmless things that happened.”

He then went on to add, “He called me “Gerd” and congratulated me on the final 74. When the crowd was really loud he told me ‘great atmosphere here in the Ruhr stadium!’ It was important that he was subbed off because nobody knows what else he would’ve done. Maybe take off the ref’s panties.”