After Adnan Kovačević was left off the list of candidates for the October matches of the “A” national team due to injury, these matches will be also missed by Toni Šunjić, who in the meantime went to China, where he must spend time in quarantine; then also Ermin Bičakčić will not be available to the head coach Duško Bajević due to injury.
Bičakčić was injured on Sunday in the championship match of the 2nd round of the Bundesliga, so he will miss the play-off match against Northern Ireland for qualification for the EURO 2020, as well as the duels with the Netherlands and Poland in the Nations League.
“The first examinations showed that it was an injury of the internal meniscus of the knee”, says the doctor of the national team, Prof. Dr Reuf Karabeg and continues: “Today, it is planned for Bičakčić to have a knee arthroscopy, so after that we should have more complete information about his health condition. Although he has already done an MRI, this examination did not give explicit confirmation that it was an anterior cruciate ligament injury. In any case, Bičakčić will not be able to be counted on for the October matches.”
Dr Karabeg added that the medical team will monitor the course of his recovery and is in constant contact with the doctors who take care of Bičakčić, as is the practice when any player of our national team is injured.
For the match, which is scheduled at the “Grbavica” stadium in Sarajevo on October 8, and for the duels in the 3rd and 4th rounds of the League of Nations with the Netherlands on October 11th in Zenica, and in Poland three days later in Warsaw, selector Dusan Bajevic invited 30 players.
“We are playing three games in 7 days, which will be very hard, even if no one gets injured or sick, so we decided to invite 30 of them to the preparations,” Bajevic explained.
The selector added: “At this moment, we are most afraid of injuries, because our players will play another game until the gathering. I hope that there is nothing serious with Bicakcic and that he will appear at the roll call next week.
We will only have three days until the meeting with Northern Ireland and we will try to use that time to the best of our ability to prepare and achieve the result we want. ”
The following players have been invited to the matches with Northern Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland: Goalkeepers: Ibrahim Šehić, Asmir Begović, Jasmin Burić, Kenan Pirić. Defense: Ermin Bičakčić, Siniša Saničanin, Ervin Zukanović, Sead Kolašinac, Eldar Ćivić, Anel Ahmedhodžić, Dennis Hadžikadunić, Branimir Cipetić, Darko Todorović, Advan Kadušić. Midfield: Rade Krunić, Stjepan Lončar, Miralem Pjanić, Gojko Cimirot, Amir Hadžiahmetović, Amer Gojak, Deni Milošević, Haris Hajradinović, Benjamin Tatar. Attack: Miroslav Stevanović, Haris Duljević, Edin Džeko, Armin Hodžić, Edin Višća, Elvir Koljić, Smail Prevljak.
The gathering of BiH team is scheduled for October 5 at the Hotel “Terme” in Ilidza.
