Rangers star Borna Barisic has been dealt another big blow ahead of a crucial Euro 2020 Group D clash between Croatia and Scotland.
The marauding left-back has been struggling with a back problem since the closing stages of the 2020/21 season.
It caused him to miss the Gers’ final two Premiership fixtures and he hasn’t featured in either of Croatia’s first two Euros matches.
With the 28-year-old recently returning to training, there had been hope that he’d be able to feature against the Scots in Glasgow on Tuesday.
However, the game looks to have come too soon for him, with manager Zlatko Dalic appearing to rule him out.
“Borna has not trained with us for the last 5/6 days,’ he said [Glasgow Live]. “He has trained only twice recently so that hasn’t been sufficient for me to be sure he can play an entire match. He’ll be with us and he’ll be there though.”
It’s a huge blow for Barisic, who has been Dalic’s first-choice left-back for some time now, while he had previously spoken of his excitement at the prospect of playing in a major tournament [Daily Record].
Now, though, the Gers star’s chances of featuring at all in the competition lie in the hands of his teammates.
The Vatreni only have one point from their opening two matches and need a win at Hampden to have a chance of progressing to the knockout stages.
One of Barisic’s Ibrox teammates has also had plenty of international setbacks recently and although he realised a dream over the weekend, his outing ended in disappointment.
