22nd May, 2012
CSKA Moscow defender Vassily Berezutsky will miss next month’s European Championship in Poland and Ukraine with a hip injury, Russia manager Dick Advocaat revealed on Sunday.
“Berezutsky is going to leave the Russian team,” Advocaat told the gazeta.ru website following the country’s first training session in Moscow.
“He won’t recover from an injury,” added the Dutchman. “We have taken this decision together with Vassily.”
The 29-year-old, whose identical twin brother Alexei also plays for the national team, confirmed his absence to Sport Express.
“Unfortunately the situation was worse than expected,” he told the daily sports newspaper.
“Today, I tried to do running exercises and I felt pain and great discomfort, which indicates the injury has not yet healed.
“By all accounts, my recovery programme, which forecasted my return to the team for May 26-27, was too optimistic,” Berezutsky added.
Russia, who line up alongside co-hosts Poland, Euro 2004 champions Greece and the Czech Republic in Group A, will be hoping to repeat their success from 2008 where they reached the semi-finals before falling to eventual champions Spain.