RANGERS defender Borna Barisic has been axed by Croatia after their disastrous Euro 2024 qualifying slump.
The left back was injured in new Ibrox boss Philippe Clement’s first game against Hibs and limped off and hasn’t featured since then, although he was expected to return to training this week.
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But he’s been relegated to Croatia’s standby list for their vital double-header in Latvia and at home to Armenia with the World Cup semi-finalists struggling to reach the Finals.
They suffered a pair of catastrophic losses in their last fixtures when they were defeated by Turkey at home before losing in Cardiff to Wales to leave them outside the automatic qualifying spots.
Rangers star Barisic, who has 31 caps, started the two games, but was subbed off in both of them and has been surprisingly only named on their reserve list for the next set of games.
Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic said: “It is understandable that after two bad games, we change the list a bit and add a few new players who deserved it with their form.
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“We also listed nine reserves, so in the next two weeks we will see who else we can or should activate, depending on their health and form.
“I deeply believe, we will react well and show that October was an exception.
“After all, this team has been fantastic and two bad performances do not shake my belief in them.”
Barisic won his first international cap six years ago and played in last year’s World Cup run to the semi-finals, where they lost to Argentina.
The 30-year old had come under fierce criticism from former Hajduk Split boss Ivan Pudar during the previous international break.
He insisted that Barisic should be axed from the squad.
Pudar said: “Borna Barisic would not be a starter for me if I was manager.
“I watched him in Wales. He received 15 passes and in ten of them he passed the back inside to Josko Gvardiol. He lacks the confidence to go forward.
“We need to think about bringing in new players to the national team.
“Wales deservedly beat us and we need to take a new approach before it’s too late.”
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