The 33-year-old won 79 caps and scored 10 goals for his country’s national team, but has been out of favour since October 2008 and Löw told the midfielder in person on Wednesday that he will play no part in his plans for June’s tournament in South Africa.

The defensive midfielder’s last international appearance was the 1-0 defeat to Norway in a friendly in February 2009.

Löw travelled to meet Frings in Bremen on Wednesday to tell him face-to-face that he had played his last international for Germany.

“This step does not come as a complete surprise for me,” Frings told sport news agency SID. “You could see it coming, if you read all the signs. There is nothing else for me to do but accept the decision, even if it has completely changed my opinion of Joachim Löw,” he said, adding that he believed he still had the potential to perform well in the World Cup.

Löw has said he wants to give rising stars like exciting play-maker Bremen’s Mesut Özil and Marko Marin or Bayern Munich’s Thomas Müller a chance and there is no place for Frings’ experience, even in the extended squad.

“We have many young players, who fulfill our requirements in our extended squad and are very good prospects both for the World Cup and beyond,” said Löw.

“We want to give young players international experience, because we are convinced of them and want to give them more responsibility and exposure at this level. There will be other important and difficult decisions to be made in the next few weeks. “We travelled to see Torsten because of his achievements with the national teams over many years.”

On Thursday Löw will announce the extended German squad, who will report for fitness training in Stuttgart on Monday.

Frings made his debut against France in February 27 2001, but his last significant appearance was the Euro 2008 final when Germany lost 1-0 to Spain in Vienna.

Frings was at the centre of a row in October 2008 when captain Michael Ballack accused Löw of not showing his senior players respect after Frings was dropped for the 2-1 win over Russia in a World Cup qualification match.

Germany has drawn Australia, Ghana and Serbia at this June’s World Cup finals in South Africa from June 11 to July 11.