Having only made his debut for Germany as recently as February - after qualification had been secured - Westermann is likely to find himself watching most of the tournament from the substitutes' bench.
Yet like uncapped goalkeeper Rene Adler, the 24-year-old can only improve for the experience of a major tournament particularly with the likes of Per Mertesacker and Christoph Metzelder to learn from.
Westermann is by no means a callow youth, though, with over 100 appearances in the Bundesliga while he also has Champions League experience.
Having started his professional career with second division SpVgg Greuther Furth, the big defender spent two years at Arminia Bielefeld - playing in 67 of a possible 68 Bundesliga games - before joining Schalke last season.
And his form for the men from Gelsenkirchen has been so good national coach Joachim Low called the former Under-21 international up for the first time for the friendly with Austria earlier this year.
















Germany