Belarus Closing In

Seeing that there’s a lack of bombastic news coming in from our camp, let’s see what news are worth a mention. Ivica Olic, who’s been quite excellent in Bayern’s pre-season efforts, has picked up a knock and we’ll be sidelined for at least a week, two at most. As reported, our Slavonian Speedster (don’t ask) landed awkwardly during a training session and ended up straining a knee ligament. Fortune in misfortune is, of course, this is as good as it gets in regards to knee injuries. Ten days and he’ll be good as new. Besides, do you honestly think anything could actually stop this man from running?

Moving on, or rather moving up further north, Mladen Petric has also had a fine pre-season with Hamburg, nicking a goal in T-home Cup Hamburg’s 3:0 win over Stuttgart. One interesting detail though, in an interview given to local newspaper, Petric said he’ll celebrate his next goal with a “moonwalk”, thereby paying a tribute to the recently passed away King of Pop. I can see football studs causing him a problem or two in this one, but it’s certainly a gesture worth keeping an eye out for.

Moving a few weeks back in time for this one, Darijo Srna looks poised to stay with Shakthar Donetsk for eternity. As it turns out, Rinat Ahmetov’s Hryvnia have grown so much on Darijo that he’s successfully resisted the temptations of more illustrious Western European cultures. I am definitely harsh on the man, but I’m sure there’s a lot of us out there who’d like to see Srna compete with the very best, week in and week out. I guess we’ll just have to wait to see if this time next year Srna feels a bit more “adventurous”.

So, let’s recapitulate on how things stand ahead of the Belarus game, which is in something like three weeks time from today. What we know for certain is that R. Kovac is out, having injured his foot in Dinamo’s pre-season meeting with Steaua a couple of weeks ago. While his recovery could match the date of the Belarus game, neither Bilic or Robert are willing to take any chances and younger Kovac will have to sit through the task. Eduardo should be fit, Olic as well. Rakitic unfortunately looks likely to miss out on this one, after being sidelined for a few weeks with an ankle injury. After a season to forget, Rakitic’s bad karma looks determined not to back down, as the last thing he needed in the midst of all that fighting & proving going on at Schalke right now was an injury to hamper him down. Godspeed recovery to you Ivan.

As for us, well it’s time to start exploring Belarus. Pryvitańnie!