Lyon's Dejan Lovren is one of four players dropped from Slaven Bilic's Croatia squad for Euro 2012 after he failed to recover from injury.
Bilic names final 23-man squad for Euros
Lyon defender Dejan Lovren is one of four players to be dropped from Slaven Bilic's final Croatia squad for Euro 2012 after he failed to recover from injury.
Bilic finalised his 23-man party on Tuesday, with Lovren failing to make the cut due to an ankle problem which has hindered his training with the national side.
The 22-year-old centre-back did not feature in Friday's friendly encounter with Estonia, which Croatia won 3-1.
Lovren joins Hajduk Split goalkeeper Goran Blazevic, Dinamo Zagreb right-back Sime Vrsaljko and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and former Blackburn striker Nikola Kalinic on the plane home from Croatia's pre-Euro 2012 training camp in Slovenia.
Sorry
Bilic said: "I'm very sorry for all of them. They are all very disappointed and of course that goes for Lovren too.
"He tried so hard, but at the end his injury was just too much. After every training session he had a big pain in his ankle.
"Doctors told us that there would not be much chance of him being able to play, so I had to axe him."
The coach has named four Premier League players in his final squad, with Tottenham trio Luka Modric, Vedran Corluka and Niko Kranjcar and Everton frontman Nika Jelavic included.
Croatia will take on Norway on Saturday in their final friendly ahead of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine before kicking off their Group C campaign against the Republic of Ireland on June 10th.
Final Croatia squad for Euro 2012:
Goalkeepers: Pletikosa (Rostov), Subasic (Monaco), Kelava (Dinamo Zagreb).
Defenders: Buljat (Maccabi Haifa), Vida (Dinamo Zagreb), Corluka (Bayer), Simunic (Dinamo Zagreb), Schildenfeld (Eintracht), Strinic (Dnipro), Pranjic (Bayern).
Midfielders: Srna (Shakhtar), Dujmovic (Zaragoza), Vukojevic (Dinamo Kijev), Rakitic (Sevilla), Modric (Tottenham), Perisic (Borussia Dortmund), Kranjcar (Tottenham), Badelj (Dinamo Zagreb), Ilicevic (Borussia Dortmund).
Forwards: Olic (Bayern), Jelavic (Everton), Mandzukic (Wolfsburg), Da Silva (Shakhtar).
