Turkey striker Nihat Kahveci has been ruled out of the rest of Euro 2008 with a thigh injury.
Injured star forced to return home
Turkey striker Nihat Kahveci has been ruled out of the rest of Euro 2008 with a thigh injury he picked up in the quarter-final win over Croatia.
Nihat had already been ruled out of Turkey's semi-final clash with Germany in Basel on Wednesday, and it has now been revealed he will play no further part in the tournament.
The Villarreal forward has returned home to Spain after suffering the injury three minutes from the end of extra-time in Friday's clash, which Fatih Terim's men went on to win on penalties.
A statement on the Turkish Football Association's official website read: "Before going, he sent his best wishes to the squad and wished them victory against Germany."
The 28-year-old is Turkey's joint top scorer in the competition with two goals - he scored the equaliser and the winner in his side's dramatic 3-2 win over the Czech Republic which qualified Turkey for the knock-out stages.
Depleted
Nihat's absence is another blow to Turkey, whose squad is already depleted through suspension and injury.
Servet Cetin, Tumer Metin and Emre Belozoglu are all injured, while Emre Gungor has already been ruled out of the tournament.
Terim had only 15 available outfield players for the Croatia clash, three of whom will be banned for the match against Germany after picking up their second yellow cards of the tournament.
Goalkeeper Volkan Demirel will find out on Monday if an appeal against his suspension has been successful.
Replacements
Indeed, such is the extent of Turkey's injury crisis that Uefa officials could be forced into an emergency meeting if Terim asks to call up a replacement player.
The former Milan boss refused to call up anyone when replacements were allowed, but should he need to now then a request would have to be made to Uefa.
"If a team, for instance, only has eight players then there will probably be an emergency meeting but at this stage we have not had any requests," said Uefa director of communications William Gaillard.
The good news for Terim is midfielder Mehmet Aurelio returns from suspension.
