Streller’s waiting game to end with Swiss recall
The 23-year-old forward broke his leg in a pre-tournament training session and Swiss coach Koebi Kuhn had hoped to name Streller for the team’s qualifier away to France last March, but the player decided he was not fit enough to play.
Streller is joined in the 19-man squad by 20-year-old midfielder Tranquillo Barnetta, who has also been out of international action since tearing his cruciate ligament during Switzerland’s 2-2 draw in Israel last October.
Switzerland’s other long-term absentee, Murat Yakin, has not been included in the squad as he has not convinced Kuhn of his match fitness.
Yakin’s younger brother, Hakan, was also omitted after failing to make the first team at his new club, Galatasaray.
The Swiss will also be without midfielder Christoph Spycher as the 27-year-old Grasshoppers Zurich midfielder was ruled out of today’s match after suffering concussion in his side’s midweek win over Neuchatel Xamax.
“If the international match was taking place three days later, Spycher could have played without any problem,” Swiss team doctor Cuno Wetzel said on Friday.
However, even without Spycher, the unbeaten Swiss will be strong favourites against the Faroe Islanders, whom they beat 6-0 at home in September.
Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos is in line to make his third appearance for the Swiss in Svangaskardh, and the young Gunner is one of a batch of talented youngsters who are starting to enter the senior set-up after making their way through the country’s newly-restructured youth programme.
The Arsenal centre-half will be leaving the Faroes immediately after Saturday’s match to captain the Swiss under-20s at the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands along with fellow first-team youngsters Reto Ziegler of Tottenham Hotspur, Hanover’s Barnetta and Brescia’s Johann Vonlanthen.
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