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The news story on the German FA website Monday night seemed perfectly innocuous.

"Michael Ballack is on his way home," it read. "[He] has decided to continue his rehabilitation program back [in Germany]."

The injured German captain had joined the team before its quarter-final win over Argentina last Saturday and was widely expected to stick around until the end of the tournament. Ballack, 33, claimed that his healing process had been "quicker than anticipated," but that the conditions in South Africa for his rehab were "no longer perfect."

The DFB medical team, he explained, were naturally focused on working with the active players on the team and were very busy around the clock.

Reading between the lines, you get the sense that nobody had too much time for him at the team hotel in Centurion. Bastian Schweinsteiger hinted that Ballack had not exactly been welcomed with open arms by the other players.

"It was nice that he came to support us in one way or another," said the Bayern midfielder opaquely. "Even if he's no longer that close to the team."

In the immediate aftermath of the Argentina win, it was obvious what Schweinsteiger meant. Ballack was noticeably celebrating next to general manager Oliver Bierhoff and other officials at Green Point Stadium, not with the team. They're no longer his team, he must have sensed.

It's too strong to say that manager Jogi Loew's men didn't want their captain to be there, but at the same time it's patently clear they did little to make his stay more enjoyable. The team has emancipated itself from Ballack, the leading player of his generation and undisputed alpha male before he picked up an ankle injury in Chelsea's FA Cup final win over Portsmouth in May.

Germany's empathic wins in the knockout stage have created a new dynamic. Whereas a national team without Ballack was unthinkable two months ago, now it's becoming more and more difficult to imagine Ballack back on the side. Football-wise, he could still have an important role to play, of course. But politically, the landscape has totally changed.

This is what stand-in captain Phillip Lahm said back on May 31: "I expect  Michael to be our captain again after the competition. I'm captain now, as long as he's not there."

And this is what Lahm told the German newspaper Bild on Monday afternoon: "I won't give up the armband of my own volition."

It sounded a little bit like a declaration of war. Or, at the very least, like a challenge. Lahm's aggressive stance is understood to be backed by the players on the team council, Schweinstweiger, Mertesacker and Klose. Ballack is being officially marginalized. No wonder he saw no point to hang around.

Many experts, including a large part of the team itself, it seems, are no longer convinced that the soon-to-be Bayer Leverkusen player has a future at the international level. It's possible to argue this case either way, but Lahm's challenge to the old boss was both supremely ill-timed and also disrespectful.

Firstly, it's up to manager Loew to make this decision, not Lahm, regardless of how well the team has played in Ballack's absence. It should also not be forgotten that the former Chelsea midfielder's strong performances in the key qualifying games against Russia got Germany to the World Cup in the first place. Lahm should have at least waited until the end of the tournament before trying to mob his rival.

Now, much more than a passage to the final is at stake in the semifinal match against Spain in Durban on Wednesday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 1:30 p.m. ET).

A bad result would open the door to a ugly bout of in-fighting.