Croatia will play against Spain without their veteran forward Ivan Perisic who tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the Euro 2020 round of 16 tie which will take place on Monday, June 28.
The 32-year-old striker would have to self-isolate for 10 days and would not return to competitive football until he tests negative for the virus.
His absence in the game is expected to be a big blow to Croatia because the Inter Milan forward has scored twice so far in the ongoing European Championship.
His two goals helped Croatia to finish second in Group D behind England. Recall that Ivan Perisic scored in Croatia’s 3-1 win over Scotland in the country’s last group game. He also scored the equalizer in Croatia’s 1-1 draw against the Czech Republic.
While announcing that Ivan Perisic would miss the round of 16 game against Spain, the Croatian FA confirmed that no other player in the team tested positive for the virus except the 32-year-old forward.
A statement from Croatian FA read: “During the evening, the Croatian Football Association received the results of regular testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which showed that national team member Ivan Perisic was positive for coronavirus.
“The medical service of the national team isolated Ivan from other members of the national team and immediately informed the competent epidemiological service in detail about the situation, with evidence of compliance with all measures to protect against the spread of coronavirus.
“Perisic will spend 10 days in self-isolation and in that period he will not compete for the matches of the Croatian national team.
“All other national team members, staff members, and delegations are negative. The national team has a flight from Pula to Copenhagen at 10:35, where they will play the game of the eighth-finals of the European Championship against Spain on Monday, June 28.”
As it stands, Ivan Perisic would no longer have the opportunity to play in the ongoing European Championship. He would have to join up with Inter Milan when he fully recovers from the coronavirus infection.
The former Bayern Munich loanee, still has until June 30, 2022, before his contract with Inter Milan expires.
