Today the national team of Ukraine held its first training in London. All players called up for the squad participated, except Illia Zabarny.

The defender arrived at the blue-and-yellow camp yesterday, met with all the boys and spoke with the assistant coach of the national team Ruslan Rotan and the medical staff of the team.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Along with Illia, the doctors from the club "Bournemouth" also arrived. They discussed the current physical condition of the player with Ukrainian colleagues. The eighth week of Zabarny's treatment and rehabilitation after a combined injury to his Achilles tendon is ongoing. There is positive progress in recovery, but his current condition does not allow him to play at a high level. Considering the risk of re-injury, doctors from both teams jointly decided to give Illia time to complete his full rehabilitation process so that he can help the national team and club for an extended period in the future. As such, Zabarny left the camp yesterday.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

For now, captain of the national team Andriy Yarmolenko is training individually. Doctors are closely monitoring him, and a decision regarding his participation in the game against England will be made later.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Today the blue-and-yellow worked in different groups, which was due to the fact that part of the footballers received full game load in Sunday matches for their clubs. Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ruslan Malinovsky and representatives of "Shakhtar" Mykola Matviyenko, Taras Stepanenko, Artem Bondarenko and Georgiy Sudakov played tennis ball. Meanwhile, the rest of the team worked on tactical assignments set by the coaching staff.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Tomorrow morning the squad will have another training session on the pitch of Brentford FC - the first 15 minutes will be open for media representatives.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

After training, Ruslan Rotan will hold his first press conference in the role of assistant coach of the national team. The meeting with mass media will start at 12:30 local time in the club's conference hall and can be watched live on YouTube channel of the UAF.

Squad of Ukraine National Team

Goalkeepers: Andriy Lunin ("Real" Madrid, Spain), Anatoliy Trubin ("Shakhtar" Donetsk), Mykita Shevchenko ("Oleksandria").

Defenders: Oleksandr Karavaev, Dmytro Popov (both - "Dynamo" Kyiv), Mykola Matviyenko ("Shakhtar" Donetsk), Vitaliy Mykolenko ("Everton" Liverpool, England), Eduard Sobolev ("Strasbourg", France), Oleksandr Svatos, Eduard Sarapiev (both - "Dnipro-1" Dnipropetrovsk), Dmytro Miroshnychenko ("Oleksandria").

Midfielders: Taras Stepanenko, Georgiy Sudakov, Artem Bondarenko (all - "Shakhtar" Donetsk), Serhiy Sydorchuk, Vitaliy Buyalskiy (both - "Dynamo" Kyiv), Oleksandr Pichalnyk ("Dnipro-1" Dnipropetrovsk), Andriy Yarmolenko ("Al-Ain", UAE), Ruslan Malinovsky ("Olympique Marseille", France), Oleksandr Zinchenko ("Arsenal" London, England), Viktor Tsygankov ("Girona", Spain), Mykhaylo Mudryk ("Chelsea" London, England), Yevhen Konoplyanka ("Cracovia" Krakow, Poland).

Forwards: Roman Yaremchuk ("Brugge", Belgium), Artem Dovbyk ("Dnipro-1" Dnipropetrovsk).

Oleksandr Hlyvinets, press secretary of the national team of Ukraine