Euro 2012 News: Spain hit hardest by injuries

These are worrying times for the coaches of teams at Euro 2012: most matches are finished, with just the Champions League final and the Copa del Rey final still to play, and squads are being finalised.

But the perennial worry about losing players to injury persists: only yesterday Sweden coach Erik Hamren announced his squad and left out John
Guidetti, scorer of 20 goals for Feyenoord this season, after he missed the last four games with a nerve inflammation in his back. Guidetti was likely
to be used as an impact sub, but to prove his concern for the striking options, Hamren has selected Johan Elmander, who is currently struggling with a metatarsal injury.

The team perhaps most affected by injuries are the 3.814/5 favourites, Spain. Last week, one of the three captains of the side, Carles Puyol, was ruled out after undergoing knee surgery which has a six-week recovery period, and Vicente del Bosque bemoaned: "We have lost the soul of the team." On the pitch, Puyol was a warrior ­ he scored the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup semi-final win over Germany ­ and off it he was an important and steadying influence.

His absence will probably see Sergio Ramos move from right-back to partner Gerard Pique in the middle, with Alvaro Arbeloa swapping from left-back to right-back, with Valencia's Jordi Alba coming in on the left. There are concerns at Ramos in the middle: though he has played there for Real Madrid this season, he does sometimes lose concentration and gets caught out of position.

Del Bosque has also made it clear he is prepared to wait as long as possible for David Villa to recover from his broken leg, which suggests that he is not totally happy with the other options he has. Unlike Fernando Torres, Fernando Llorente has had an excellent season with Athletic Bilbao but his strengths demand a different approach to Spain's quick-passing game. The coach might just play no centre-forward and have David Silva, Cesc Fabregas and Juan Mata, or Iker Muniain or Pedro Rodriguez, as part of a fluid front three. That's why backing a Spaniard in the Top Scorer Market Villa is (18.535/2), Cesc is (65.064/1) and Torres (20.019/1)
- might be a dangerous game.

In the same group, Italy have been hugely hampered by the injury to Giuseppe Rossi which has forced coach Cesare Prandelli to call up Antonio di Natale, the 34-year-old Udinese striker who has not played for the Azzurri since the last World Cup. Also on his long-list is Mattia Destro, who was tipped as a
potential call-up by Dave Farrar in this excellent column last month.

France coach Laurent Blanc also has some dilemmas. Loic Remy limped off with a hamstring injury for Marseille last week and though he made it into Tuesday's long-list of players, may not make the final cut. That's a big blow for Blanc: not only is Remy a certain starter on the right of a front three, but he is also first back-up to centre-forward Karim Benzema. If Benzema was unavailable, and Remy also missing, Blanc would call on Olivier Giroud, the Montpellier centre-forward with only one cap to his name. He is more of an old-fashioned centre-forward and France play more long-balls when he is in the side. It's a worry for Blanc, who last week lost Bacary Sagna
as his right-back option as well. France are (1.528/15) favourites to qualify from Group D, with the Straight Forecast France 1st/England 2nd a tempting 4.84/1.

Also in Group D, England are without Jack Wilshere and Michael Dawson, while Darren Bent and Scott Parker are injury concerns. Sweden also have to do without Daniel Majstorovic while Ukraine are likely to miss two goalkeepers, Aleksandr Shovkovskiy (shoulder) and Andriy Dykan (concussion), through
injury and another, Aleksandr Rybka, has been banned for two years for doping. That leaves Shakhtar Donetsk reserve keeper Andriy Pyatov as the
likely starter, and why Ukraine should be considered at 2.568/5 to finish bottom of Group D.