Striker blow for Russia, Zenit hit-man Pogrebnyak set for heartache
Russia’s preparations for Euro 2008 have been handed a major blow with the news Pavel Pogrebnyak’s knee injury has ruled him out.
Reports in Russian media earlier on Saturday said a Uefa-accredited doctor had signed an official statement to confirm Pogrbnyak’s injury was serious enough to prevent the forward from playing at Euro-2008.
And now the bad news has been confirmed by coach Guus Hiddink, who has called up Oleg Ivanov as his replacement.
"Pavel will leave the training camp, will leave the team," Hiddink said. "We tried as much as possible but at the end he made the decision not to continue and to leave the camp."
Pogrebnyak suffered the injury after scoring in a warm-up friendly win over Serbia, but it had been hoped he would be fit for Tuesday’s match with Spain.
After taking on Spain, Russia play Greece (June 14) and Sweden (June 18) in the group stage.
