Mjällby forced to pull out

Sweden, Spain and Bulgaria will all have to think again after suffering injuries to key players ahead of Saturday's opening EURO 2004™ qualifiers.

Knee injury
Celtic FC defender Johan Mjällby has pulled out of Sweden's squad to face Latvia because of a knee injury. It is not yet known who will take the 31-year-old's place with plans for a replacement still being finalised.

Young talent
"It's a blow to miss Mjällby, but we are lucky that we have other good defenders," said joint coach Lars Lagerbäck. The squad has a particularly youthful feel with the likes of Kim Källström, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pontus Farnerud, Rade Prica and Nils-Eric Johanssen all featuring.

Double blow
Spain coach Iñaki Sáez has suffered a double blow to his preparations for their match against Greece. Athletic Club Bilbao midfield player Pablo Orbaiz and FC Barcelona defender Carles Puyol have both withdrawn after suffering injuries in the opening games of the Spanish season.

Salgado chance
Orbaiz, who made his international debut against Hungary last month, suffered a twisted ankle and will be out for a fortnight. Puyol limped off the field for Barcelona and will be a bigger loss to the Spain cause. Sáez has called up Real Betis Balompié's 23-year-old midfield player Fernando Varela and Real Madrid CF's experienced full-back Michel Salgado as replacements.

Berbatov missing
Another team having to make changes are Bulgaria, with PFC Levski Sofia striker Georgi Chilikov receiving his first international call-up after it became clear that Dimitar Berbatov and Georgi Ivanov would not be fit to face Belgium.

Seven goals
Chilikov has caught Plamen Markov's eye with two successive hat-tricks in the Bulgarian Premier League which led to Levski victories over PFC Slavia Sofia and PFC Rilski Sportist. He has now scored seven goals in four matches.

Senior hope
Chilikov, who was the most expensive internal transfer in Bulgaria over the summer, was an established part of the Bulgaria team in the 1998/99 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers when he played alongside Georgi Peev, Stilian Petrov, Martin Petrov, and Ilian Stoyanov and he will look to link up with them again for the senior side.

Armand promoted
Another young player earning a chance is FC Nantes Atlantique defender Sylvain Armand. The France U21 player was called into the full squad after the withdrawal of Vincent Candela because of injury.

Henry doubt
"I'm really surprised as I had not been picked for the match against Tunisia, and I was not supposed to play in this week's game either," Armand said. "But Candela suffered an injury and the coach thought I was worth calling up." New coach Jacques Santini may also have to do without Thierry Henry, after he missed Arsenal FC's 1-1 draw with Chelsea FC yesterday with an ankle injury. Chelsea's Emmanuel Petit missed that game and is another doubt.