The captain of the Czech national team, Tomáš Rosický, will not be in
the starting line-up of Thursday’s match against Portugal. The manager of
the Czech team, Vladimír Šmicer, told Czech TV that the team captain may
join the team at a later point in the quarter finals game but that he is
still fighting an Achilles heel infection. Šmicer, a former successful
midfielder for Slavia Prague and Liverpool FC, has not released any further
details regarding the starting line-up. Mr Rosický last Sunday travelled
to Prague for treatment; on Tuesday, he returned to Poland and trained with
his team mates on Wednesday.