The Borna Barisic injury mystery took another twist when Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic completely contradicted his earlier comments and confirmed Barisic is injured and only a ‘hope’ to make the Scotland match.
The NT boss, who had only a few days earlier confirmed Barisic was raring to go and the best choice for LB and the first pick, now changed the story entirely and announced the Rangers star has been injured since arriving at the camp and has been unable to shake off the niggle.
It’s a deeply bizarre one, and we don’t know why the former Osijek’s national boss didn’t just confirm his injury in the first place, while he instead gave out a patently false comment that the assist king would be the first pick in the Euros and was ready to start.
It was utterly odd.
We now know Barisic’s omission from England wasn’t anything to do with caving to fan pressure over Gvardiol, but was purely down to Barisic lacking fitness.
He is touch and go to make the final match, and our heart goes out to him – he’s waited for a major championships his whole life, and finally goes to one only for it to be potentially all snatched away from him.
A very unfair and cruel twist of fate for a player who should be lighting the tournament up.
Fingers are crossed he does make the Scotland match.