Imminent Newcastle United signing Johan Manzambi has been ruled out by Switzerland.
They take on Argentina at (UK time) 2am on Sunday morning for a place in the 2026 World Cup semi-finals.
Whoever get through will face England or Norway, they face each other at (UK time) 10pm on Saturday night.
For Switzerland it would be a first ever World Cup semi-final, if they get through.
To do so, they will have to do it without Johan Manzambi who has been arguably their best player. In the opening four matches Switzerland scored nine goals and Manzambi had five direct goal involvements.
The 20-year-old was clearly missed in their last 16 tie after suffering a knee injury in training, a shocking game saw Switzerland and Colombia goalless after more than two hours of football and very few chances created, the Swiss progressing to the quarter-finals via penalty shoot out.
They had been optimistic regarding Johan Manzambi returning for this Argentina match but the Switzerland team boss revealing a very negative update.
Murat Yakin at his pre-match press conference: “We tried everything that we could to get him back, unfortunately he is unable to play [against Argentine]. Johan Manzambi is in a lot of pain and it was a shock to all of us. Momentum was on his side and there is so much joy when he plays football.”
When reporting on the injury news, The Athletic stating: ‘Johan Manzambi is on course to join Premier League club Newcastle United when the tournament ends. The Athletic reported on Thursday that Newcastle and Freiburg had reached an agreement in principle over a deal worth in the region of £50million ($67m).’