Nurnberg looking at Balitsch

Balitsch was told before Christmas that he is surplus to requirements at Leverkusen and he was advised to find a new club, and Nurnberg has stepped in after losing Gonzalez to torn knee ligaments.

Balitsch has been invited to a training camp in Turkey where he will meet club coach Dieter Hecking and work with the team.

"Our team is too quiet and we need to get noisier," Hecking told Bild newspaper.

"Hanno is just the man for this. We did clash once in the past, but that is part of football."

Hecking coached Balitsch at Hannover and once dropped him to the reserves after an argument during the half-time interval of a Bundesliga fixture.

However, with a shortage of similar players, not least after Gonzalez's injury, Hecking is willing to offer a second chance to a player who has made 284 Bundesliga appearances.

Gonzalez tore cruciate knee ligaments in training on Friday, just days after joining the club, and he misses the rest of the season after returning to the United States for an operation.

"It is very bitter for Omar," said Nurnberg's director of sport Martin Bader on his club's website.

"He wanted to show us what he is capable of and we had vested a lot of hope in him.

"The important thing is Omar gets fit and healthy again and we wish him all the best."