THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WROCLAW, Poland — Czech Republic captain Tomas Rosicky remains a doubt for the European Championship quarterfinals after an Achilles tendon injury forced him to miss his team’s 1-0 victory over Poland.
Rosicky picked up the injury during Tuesday’s 2-1 win against Greece and hasn’t trained since. He was ruled out hours before Saturday’s game in Wroclaw and his place in the midfield went to Daniel Kolar.
Rosicky said Sunday that he has a chance of recovering in time for the next match but "the chance is not big."
The Czechs topped Group A ahead of Greece and now face the second team from a tough Group B in Thursday’s quarterfinal in Warsaw. Be it Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal or Denmark, the Czechs clearly need Rosicky to recover to improve their chances of victory.
"We all know he’s irreplaceable," coach Michal Bilek said.
The Czechs have struggled without the Arsenal playmaker. Known as "Little Mozart," Rosicky responded to an opening 4-1 loss to Russia by orchestrating a 2-0 lead for the Czechs on Tuesday before he had to be substituted.
With his absence, the Greeks put the Czechs under pressure as did the Poles on Saturday in the first half.
The midfielder is no stranger to injuries. He picked up a calf muscle problem in Arsenal’s last Premier League match on May 13 and only recovered last week. He also missed Euro 2008 due to injury and the Czechs were knocked out after the group stage.
Rosicky acknowledged some problems in the game against Poland but overall praised his team’s performance.
"There was a big mistake in the first half that Dan Kolar, who played in my position, was too high. He was in a position where he couldn’t get the ball," he said. "In the second half, he dropped a little bit deeper and it was much better. The players did exactly what the coach wanted them to and we deserved to win."
Rosicky said his team’s experience from tough qualifying games and the Euro 2012 playoffs proved decisive against Poland, which as a co-host didn’t have to qualify and played only friendlies for the last two years.
"We know how to handle the situation when you play for everything," Rosicky said. "We stayed calm and it paid off. The experience from the qualifying games prevailed. The Polish team was nervous. They didn’t know what to do."
Looking ahead, Rosicky made it clear the Czechs had no preference about their next opponent.
"We don’t care about it at all," he said.