Morocco head coach Walid Regragui has confirmed captain Romain Saiss will not be available for their 2022 FIFA World Cup third-place match against Croatia on Saturday.
The 32-year-old spent only 21 minutes on the pitch in the Atlas Lions’ 2-0 semi-final loss to France.
Saiss was taken off in Morocco’s historic quarter-final victory over Portugal after 57 minutes and he was risked for the semi-final with his knee heavily strapped.
Saiss struggled with mobility for the 21 minutes he played on Wednesday before being replaced by Selim Amallah and Regragui has stated it is not worth risking the former Wolverhampton Wanderers star again.
“We lost our captain, Romain Saiss, during the game. We took a risk with him, but it was a risk worth taking. We wanted to go out to battle with him leading our battalion,” Regragui said at the pre-match press conference.
“He is injured and we have some other injured players too, and we’ll check how they are today.
“We really, really pushed our players to their limits, but they still want to go out tomorrow and play again. But, we won’t be taking any risks with any of our players tomorrow.
“Romain Saiss is out. However, I am confident, and I trust our group, and I know we’ll be able to give it our all tomorrow.”
Saiss was not the only player that struggled with fitness against France as Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui was taken off at the start of the second half and replaced by Yahya Attiat-Allah.
