Images via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
With around ten days to go until Fernando Santos announces his first squad as Selekcjoner, selection headaches around who is and is not fit for the games against the Czech Republic and Albania are likely to affect the make-up of the squad.
The biggest name likely to miss out will be Arkadiusz Milik, who suffered a hip injury at the end of January and was confirmed by his manager at Juventus, Massimiliano Allegri, that Milik would be out until after the international break. Similar is Krystian Bielik, with Birmingham City announcing that a calf injury is likely to keep him out for at least a few more weeks.
Kamil Glik had to undergo surgery on a knee injury in the middle of February, and whilst coming towards the end of his career, you imagine there would’ve been a place for him in the squad regardless. Jakub Moder has been back on the training pitch at Brighton for some time now, but it makes sense not to rush him back given the complications he has suffered in his recovery from the ACL injury he suffered nearly a year ago.
There’ll be a race against time for Robert Lewandowski, who suffered a hamstring strain last weekend in Barcelona’s loss to Almeria, as well as Sebastian Szymański who has resumed training with Feyenoord after a knee injury, and it’s yet to be seen if he’ll be fit enough to play Groningen this evening. Szymon Żurkowski didn’t have the best time in the Polish squad last time around, and given he is only just recovering from a herniated disc in his back, he’s unlikely to make the squad either.
However, the positives are that all these injury issues give chances for players who are in good form and could impact the squad in a positive way. Dawid Kownacki is the obvious choice, but his Fortuna Düsseldorf teammate Michał Karbownik would be another deserving choice. I’m a big fan of Kacper Kozłowski, and he’s been playing to a decent standard in Holland with Vitesse, and would be another younger player I’d like to see reintroduced to the senior Polish side. As for the more established players, if Mateusz Klich and Paweł Dawidowicz came back into the reckoning for Poland, I think that they would certainly be adding quality in depth to the squad.
It’s unfortunate that Poland will be missing key players, or relying on key players coming back into full fitness, for what are set to be the most difficult games of their European qualifying group. It’s also a worry that if results are not the desired ones that we will go too far in judging Santos, either too harshly or too warmly, simply because he will not have a full list of fit and established Polish representatives to choose from.
Injuries are absolutely a part of football no-one can control, but it seems like this upcoming Poland squad will lead to injury problems dominating our thinking prior to the first qualifier in Prague on the 24th.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments