Croatia take on Scotland in their final group game and they will once again be without left-back Borna Barisic.
The 28-year-old came into the European Championship at the back of a superb season with Rangers FC but he is yet to play a single game for Croatia in the European Championship.
Borna Barisic has been recovering from a back injury and in the past few days, he has returned to training which gave everyone hope that he will be ready to feature vs Scotland on Tuesday night.
But Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic has made it clear that the left-back is not yet ready to be named in the starting line-up and is likely to miss their final group game.
The manager said, as quoted: “Borna has not trained with us for the last 5/6 days.
“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”
This is going to be good news for Scotland manager Steve Clarke since Borna Barisic has been in fine nick for Rangers FC during the 2020-21 season, playing in 50 games across all competitions for the Gers.
But according to Noel Whelan, Steven Gerrard will be a bit worried about this niggling injury problem since it could very well hamper the player’s performances next season.
“Any manager or teammate you play with, you want to see them play,” Whelan told Football Insider. “You want them to do well and you don’t want to see them picking up injuries.
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“It will be very worrying. It’s been a long season for Rangers so that worry is always there for a manager. Hopefully, it’s just a strain and something he can shrug off. Gerrard will be keeping his fingers crossed.
“He’ll want his player to make an appearance in the tournament and to be free of injury before next season.”
The fact that Borna Barisic has returned to full training means he has already recovered from his injury and now it’s only a matter of being match fit. While the manager has confirmed the left-back will not start for Croatia but he is likely to feature in some capacity at Hampden Park.
