Turkey's delight at reaching their first European championship semi-final faded on Saturday as it was revealed their talismanic striker and caretaker captain Nihat Kahveci was extremely doubtful for Wednesday's clash with three-time champions Germany.
The 28-year-old — scorer of two goals in the 3-2 win over the Czech Republic in their final group game, but who largely ploughed a thankless lonely furrow in the quarter-final against Croatia — has a groin injury that forced him off toward the end of extra-time on Friday.
The Villarreal star’s injury heightens coach Fatih Terim’s selection headache ahead of the German match — a repeat of the 2002 World Cup semi-final that the Germans won.
PHOTO: AFP
“The Emperor,” as he is known, has already four players out suspended in goalkeeper Volkan Demirel, though the Turks had an appeal hearing over his two match suspension late yesterday for pushing over Jan Koller in the Czech match, defender Emre Asik and midfield duo Tuncay Sanli and the influential Arda Turan.
Defender Emre Gungor has already been ruled out of the rest of the tournament through injury, while there are injury doubts over regular captain Emre Belozoglu, key defender Servet Cetin and Tumer Metin.
However, the absence of Nihat, who scored 18 goals for Spanish side Villarreal in last season which was a key factor in them qualifying for the Champions League, would be the most serious blow as time and again he has got them out of trouble.
Apart from the brace in the last three minutes against the Czech Republic, it was Nihat who scored the decisive goal in the 2-1 and 1-0 Euro qualifier wins over Norway and Bosnia respectively, which got the Turks their ticket to Euro 2008.
He has made a remarkable comeback, as a year ago he was only able to walk with the aid of crutches after suffering ruptured cruciate ligaments in his left knee and only returned to action last September.
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