The Croatian Football Federation announced that Ivan Perisic, the influential Inter Milan forward returned a positive result on Saturday and will now begin a 10-day period of self-isolation, ruling him out of Monday’s clash with Spain in the Danish capital of Copenhagen and a potential quarter-final tie in St Petersburg, Russia on Friday, should 2018 World Cup finalists Croatia advance.
Croatia is due to take on Spain at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, but will do so without Inter winger Perisic following the latest results of tests within the national team camp.
The statement added: “The medical service of the national team isolated Ivan Perisic from the rest of the other members of the team, and immediately informed the competent health service in detail about the situation, with evidence of compliance with all measures to protect against the spread of the Corona virus.”
The Croatian Football Federation statement continued: “Perisic will spend 10 days in self-isolation, during which time he will not play any matches for the Croatian national team, while the result of the rest of the national team members and staff has been negative.”
It became certain that Perisic was absent from the Croatia match against Spain, in the price of the Euro 2020 final.
His absence is a major blow for World Cup runners-up Croatia as they look to get past a Spain team who hit their stride and reached the knockout stages with a 5-0 win over Slovakia.