Taras Stepanenko continues to recover from injury.
Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Taras Stepanenko trained outside the general group of the Ukrainian national team before the match of the 3rd round of the group stage of the 2024/25 League of Nations against the team Georgia.
As reported by the official website of the UAF, on Tuesday, October 8, the national team in the Polish city of Poznan was almost in full force preparing for the upcoming match.
However, Stepanenko worked separately from the general group of players, since he has a damage to the medial collateral ligament of the knee joint. So his participation in the match against Georgia remains in question.
Thus, the head coach of the “blue-yellows” Sergei Rebrov faced a serious problem of who to put in the position of defensive midfielder in the match with Georgia. The only nominal defensive midfielder left is the newcomer to the national team Ivan Kalyuzhny, who was called up instead of the injured Vladimir Brazhko.
The Ukraine vs. Georgia match will take place on Friday, October 11, at the Enea Arena stadium in the Polish city of Poznan. The game will kick off at 21:45 Kyiv time. The text online broadcast of the match will be available on our website.
See also: 2024/25 Nations League: all groups and tournament tables
Recall that in the 2024/25 Nations League season, the Ukrainian national team is playing in Division B, where its opponents are the Czech Republic, Georgia and Albania. In the opening rounds, the Ukrainians suffered defeats from Albania (1:2) and the Czech Republic (2:3), and therefore occupy the last place in their group, without scoring a single point.
Georgia leads the quartet with 6 points – Willy Sagnol's team began the tournament with victories over the Czechs (4:1) and the Albanians (1:0). Albania and the Czech Republic, which have 3 points each, will meet in Prague on October 11.
It should be noted that after the face-to-face match, the Ukrainian team will play the Czech Republic in the 4th round of the League of Nations on October 14 in Wroclaw, and Georgia will host Albania on the same day.