Having already seen key striker, Marco Streller withdraw from the World Cup, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld now has a new concern. Captain, Alexander Frei injured his ankle in training after a tackle from Steve von Bergen. He has been sent for a scan so the extent of the injury can be conduced.

This blow leaves Switzerland with a real problem upfront. Albert Bunjaku has only 2 caps to his name and Eren Derdiyok is young and raw. The third striker, Blaise Nkufo is old and has only won 29 caps since 2002. With Streller out of the World Cup there would appear to be no obvious player to call up to the squad to replace Frei should his injury be serious. The uncapped but highly rated 18 year old Nassim Ben Khalifa (who will join Wolfsburg from Grasshopper on July 1st) is on standby for a late and surprising call up. Ben Khalifa has not even been capped at Under 21 level yet.

This would be heartbreaking for Frei – he limped out of Euro 2008 in front of the home Swiss fans and then went on to break his arm later that year. The early reports from the Swiss medical staff say this may only be an ankle sprain – in which case he might be able to make the second group match against Chile.

The Swiss team are one of the last to arrive in South Africa and fly tonight. Frei has flown with the team.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter

Tags: Alexander Fre, Doron, Frei, SA 2010, South Africa 2010, Switzerland, WC 2010, World Cup

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Europe, Injury News, International, Players, South Africa 2010, WC Squads, World Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.