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DW reports that the local police force for Neuss, near D�sseldorf, confirmed to the local Rheinische Post newspaper on Thursday that it was Schalke�s Kevin-Prince Boateng who was the victim of a Christmas Day assault in Kaarst. The incident was first announced in a police press release which named neither victim nor suspect. �On Wednesday, 25.12.2013, at around 12:45, an incident of physical assault took place in Kaarst. A 26-year-old man, a resident of Meerbusch, was physically attacked on the street by a currently unidentified man,� the police statement said. �There are indications that the motive for the crime is connected to the personal affairs of the 26-year-old,� the police statement said. �The man was mildly injured. Criminal investigators have begun their work.�German mass-circulation paper Bild later reported on its website that Boateng was leaving the house of his ex-wife after visiting his young son at Christmas. According to Bild, Boateng was struck once by the assailant and fell onto a vase as a result. He later checked into a local hospital with bruising to his ribs, back and neck. The police appealed for anyone who might have witnessed the apparent assault on Kaarst�s �Lange Hecke� street to make contact. The Schalke player on Thursday issued only one post on his official Twitter account, a photo of a wristwatch with a short caption: �It�s TIME.� Boateng, a Ghanaian international who grew up in Germany, joined Schalke late in the previous transfer window from AC Milan. He had previously played for rival club Borussia Dortmund. His half-brother Jerome Boateng plays for Bayern Munich and Germany. Ghana and Germany will meet in the group stages of the 2014 World Cup.