Images via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
There’s been a few high-profile injuries to key members of Poland’s squad in the past few weeks, such as Arkadiusz Milik and Kamil Glik amongst others. We’re still yet to see any indication of what the make-up of Fernando Santos’ first squad as Selekcjoner will look like, but you imagine there would’ve been places for Milik and Glik.
Milik suffered an injury to his hip flexor and is estimated to be out until the second week of March, which puts his chances of being in the Poland squad for the first qualifiers against Czechia and Albania at risk. The most obvious replacements in Dawid Kownacki and Adam Buksa are also presently injured, and Karol Świderski will need time to get up to speed as the 2023 MLS season is set to start this time next week.
So who could step in? You’d perhaps have to take a look at Bartosz Białek, who is benefiting from regular game time in the Eredivisie with Vitesse, and Oskar Zawada is in great form over in the A-League, even if that isn’t the highest level. If we’re looking inside the U-21 set-up then perhaps Filip Szymczak or Szymon Włodarczyk would benefit from the step up a level. Alternatively, perhaps Santos will look to include an extra winger or midfielder instead, and all this speculation is pointless.
Santos will have to consider who to include instead of Glik, who has had to undergo surgery on his knee this past week and is likely to miss the international break at the end of March. Again, obvious replacements like Paweł Dawidowicz and Michał Helik are also suffering with injuries, and Paweł Bochniewicz only has two Polish caps at age 27, and hasn’t been completely free of injury this season either. Personally, I think the time is right for Maik Nawrocki to earn his first cap for Poland given his impressive performances for Legia Warszawa this season, and he’s only 22 years of age.
It was also possible that Sebastian Szymański would miss out through injury, but he’s returned to Feyenoord training this week and looks to be recovering perfectly well. The same is true of Jakub Moder as he continues his recovery from his ACL injury nearly 12 months ago, and it seems he isn’t far off returning to Brighton’s match day squads in the coming weeks.
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