I know everyone on here hates excuses but German was genuinely running through an injury at Foot Lockers in '07. He finished 3rd even fighting through the injury but if it wasn't Foot Lockers, there's no way his coach lets him run that weekend.
It's unfortunate that at his two biggest cross races he's been injured, but I really do think the injuries were for real. At least I hope so. I've posed the same questions most of us have - does German coincidentally get injured at his biggest races because the mental side of it becomes too much for him? - but I just don't think that's the case. He would have to lack a competitive edge for that to be the case and lately he's won three races he could have run great times losing. His mile especially. He only ran 3:56 cause that's how fast he had to run to beat Ulrey.
I think he's incredibly competitive and I hope Smith will let him run up front with the lead pack at Worlds so that we'll all see where he really stacks up against his age group internationally. I think if he's not trying to run everyone down from the back, he'll finish top-5.