Zagreb, May 23 (IANS): Croatian coach Niko Kovac has learned that he will have to do without Ivan Strinic in his FIFA World Cup plans as the latest medical reports revealed that the defender has ruptured his hamstring muscle.
The 26-year-old Dnipro defender was supposed to have his World Cup debut in Brazil as he almost had a guaranteed spot in the Croatian starting lineup, reports Xinhua. Strinic's absence might be a problem for Kovac because the Croatian team is not that deep at the left-back position Strinic was covering.
"Additional medical exams showed that Strinic has ruptured hamstring muscle," Kovac said here Thursday.
"I feel sorry for him but he will not travel with us to the preparation camp in Austria and therefore will not be among the candidates for the World Cup. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time to wait for him to get fit again," he added.
Danijel Pranjic from Panathinaikos seems like a logical first choice for Kovac as he was called up to the team from his international retirement last November for play-off matches against Iceland when Strinic was injured. Even though Pranjic is predominantly a mid-fielder, he successfully played the role of a left-back during Slaven Bilic's era at the Croatian bench.
Pranjic had some memorable performances and played all four games at left-back position during the 2008 European Championship when Croatia was on the brink of making it to the semi-finals before it lost in a penalty shootout against Turkey.
The second option for Kovac on that left defensive wing could be Vedran Corluka who had a great season with Lokomotiv Moscow but as a central defender.
"It's been a while since I played at that position but I will do whatever coach will ask me to do for the team," Corluka said after his first practice with the team at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb.
It's a bit of a paradox but as Kovac's list of candidates is getting shorter, the list of the staff members helping him is getting longer. No other Croatian coach had such a strong team around him and this is mainly because Kovac is very keen on using technology. So he brought two special international analysts.
One is Frenchman Nicolas Iovier, who will use SportCode software for video analyses and the other is Irish Barry Hamilton, who will track players with his GPS system.
"Nicolas Iover is an experienced analyst who works for French club Montpellier. He will analyse the performance of our players and the performance of our opponents. Barry Hamilton's work will give us important information on our players: how much they run, how fast or how much ground they covered. This is technology that all big clubs use," Kovac explained his decision to include a few more people in his staff.
Kovac's training methods will be tested in Brazil but players' fitness will be tested from Friday on when the best Croatian footballers will travel to Austrian resort Bad Tatzmannsdorf. The hosts have prepared a special sauna that Kovac and his team will use to recreate weather conditions in Manaus, where Croatia will play its second match in the Group A against Cameroon.