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Polish government asked Germany to let two football players forgo quarantine

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Prime Minister has called German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ask that two national team players be exempt from quarantine rules when re-entering Germany after a soccer World Cup qualifier against England, Warsaw said on Saturday.

The two players - Robert Lewandowski and Krzysztof Piatek - play for German Bundesliga clubs, who could stop them from going to Britain for the match as that would mean they would miss games with their teams when they return due to quarantine rules.

"The prime minister asked the chancellor for the rules to be imposed equally and fairly towards all national representations and, thanks to this, the Polish Bundesliga players will also be able to take advantage of them," Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski told Polish state news agency PAP.

The Polish foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters request for comment. A German government spokesman said Merkel's office does not comment on private discussions.

It is officially up to the regional governments in Germany to grant quarantine exceptions, which are not unprecedented.

Lewandowski plays for Bayern Munich while Piatek plays for Hertha Berlin.

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Thomas Escritt in Berlin; Editing by Hugh Lawson)