Injured Rosicky doubtful for Portugal clash

Tomas Rosicky is in doubt for the Czech Republic’s Euro 2012 quarter-final match against Portugal.

The Czech captain missed the last group game against Poland with an inflamed Achilles tendon, and it looks as though he will be on the sidelines again for Thursday’s encounter.

“Will he be able to play from the start? I don’t think so,” team manager Vladmir Smicer told the CTK agency.

“He hasn’t trained for eight days, he’s only been able to do some work on the bike.

“In order for him to play in such a tough match, he should at the very least have had three full training sessions in order to be 100 percent ready.”

The Arsenal playmaker has suffered with injuries throughout his career and was initially doubtful to play in the tournament at all after picking up a calf problem in the Gunners’ final Premier League game of the season.

But he is determined to recover in time for the clash with Portugal, and has been back in Prague seeing a specialist to try to overcome the problem.

He has now returned to Poland to join up with the rest of the squad and will be given the chance to prove his fitness in training.

“The decision as to whether he plays in the quarter-final will be taken after the official training session on Wednesday evening,” said Czech spokesman Jaroslav Kolar.