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Germany captain Michael Ballack has agreed to meet coach Joachim Loew to clear the air after their public row although Chelsea have denied him permission to travel.

Loew reacted furiously to comments from Ballack, published earlier this week, suggesting senior players were not being given enough respect in the national team.

The coach said he would insist on Ballack attending a private meeting with him in Germany and the row showed signs of cooling when the German football association (DFB) announced on Friday that the two men had agreed to the talks after speaking by telephone.

However, it now looks as if Loew will be the one who has to travel if he wants the meeting to go ahead before the squad meets up for Germany's match at home to England next month.

"We received a fax from Chelsea on Friday afternoon, stating that after his foot operation Ballack would not be allowed to travel on medical grounds," the DFB said in a later statement.

Germany's Sueddeutsche newspaper quoted Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari as saying he would invite Loew to spend one or two days at the English club if he wanted to speak to Ballack.

The row between the two most important figures in the national team began when Ballack criticised the coach's handling of some selection issues.

His comments followed Torsten Frings saying he was considering his international future after being left out of the starting lineup for the last two World Cup qualifiers.

Loew issued a strongly worded statement in response, saying Ballack would have to agree to meet him in person and that his future role in the team would depend on how the talks went.

Past and present Germany players have been giving their opinion on the spat, while the media have speculated on whether Loew would go as far as to drop Ballack for the England match.

Franz Beckenbauer, still the most influential voice in German football, urged Loew not to kick the Chelsea midfielder out.

"Ballack is the best player we have, and the only one who is world class," Beckenbauer said in his column in Bild newspaper on Friday.

"Also, in the last few years he has developed into a real captain. As a coach, you don't dispense with someone like that."

Juergen Klinsmann, Loew's predecessor as coach, said Ballack would simply have to apologise after making what he called a mistake in speaking out.

Reuters