Croatia’s three ‘best men’ miss training with injuries ahead of showdown with England

Croatia was missing three key players at training on Monday ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final showdown with England.

Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic, right-back Sime Vrsaljko and Liverpool centre-back Dejan Lovren all missed the session at the Luzhniki Stadium training complex.

Subasic suffered a tight hamstring towards the end of Croatia’s quarter-final win over hosts Russia and was unable to take goal-kicks before the tie went to penalties.

Monaco keeper Subasic is understood to have missed training as a precaution, so as not to aggravate his problematic hamstring, while Lovren’s unspecified injury is not thought to be serious enough to keep him out of the semi-final.

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But there is a major doubt over the participation of Vrsaljko, who hobbled off with a knee injury in extra-time during the quarter-final win over Russia in Sochi.

If Vrsaljko does not make it, one option for Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic will be to bring Vedran Corluka into central defence and push Domagoj Vida out to right-back.