No matter what the competition is and in which sport, spectators want to see the best competitors taking the field. In football this is no different. All of the squads have now been announced for Euro 2016 and there are numerous high-profile absentees from this year’s tournament.
Out of all of the players that will be absent from the 15th edition of the European Championships, you can compile a very competitive squad and one that would probably challenge for the trophy.
Goalkeepers
England’s Jack Butland fractured his ankle during England’s 3-2 win over Germany in March, just after he had been given his chance by Roy Hodgson to stake a claim to become first-choice. Our other two keepers, Ron Robert Zieler and Kevin Trapp, haven’t missed out due to injury, but because of the shear wealth of talent that Germany have in goal.
Defenders
Real Madrid team-mates Raphaël Varane and Daniel Carvajal were both called up for France and Spain respectively. However, Varane picked up an injury in training ahead of the Champions League Final and Carvajal limped off in the aforementioned game with a muscle injury. Belgium’s captain, Vincent Kompany, sustained a thigh injury during the Champions League semi-final second leg and will be a big miss for the Red Devils. 20-year-old Luke Shaw suffered a double broken leg during Manchester United’s Champions League defeat last September and isn’t yet fully recovered. Bayern’s Javi Martínez has had a season disrupted by injury and there were question marks over his fitness ahead of the Euros.
Midfielders
Spain are blessed with a wealth of talent in midfield and that is why Juan Mata, Isco and Saúl Ñíguez have been omitted. If the trio were of another nationality, then you would have seen them playing in the Euros this summer. Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla was excluded having just returned from a long-term knee injury. Lass Diarra has enjoyed a renaissance this season and was part of France’s squad for the Euros. Unfortunately he had to pull out of the squad after suffering a knee injury during a 3-2 friendly win over Cameroon last week. Italy have arguably been hardest hit in midfield with certain starters Marco Verratti and Claudio Marchisio missing through injury, significantly weakening their squad. New Manchester City signing, İlkay Gündoğan, will be missing his second successive tournament due to injury.
Attackers
Gündoğan’s former team-mate, Marco Reus, is also set to miss out on a second consecutive tournament due to concerns over his fitness. Germany will also be missing Karim Bellarabi who was cut from the provisional squad as Joachim Löw has gone for the more experienced Lukas Podolski and André Schürrle. Chelsea’s Diego Costa was omitted from Spain’s squad due to not fitting their style of play. Danny Welbeck scored 6 goals for England during the qualifiers but a knee injury that will keep him out until early 2017 has forced him to miss the Euros. Hosts France will be missing the attacking trio of Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa. The former has been omitted due to an impending court case, whereas the other two miss out due to the wealth of attackers at Didier Deschamp’s disposal.
