Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev will fly to Germany on Tuesday to undergo an operation to repair torn ligaments on his left knee.
"Tests showed torn ligaments, that means it′ll be some six months before I can resume training," the CSKA Moscow player was quoted as saying in Tuesday′s Sport-Express newspaper.
"Basically I′ll be out for the rest of the year."
The 21-year-old, voted Russia′s best goalkeeper for the past two seasons, suffered the injury while playing in a premier league match at Rostov on Sunday.
He will miss several of Russia′s Euro 2008 Group E qualifiers this year, including key home and away matches against England in September and October.
The Russians, who have 11 points from five matches, trail group leaders Croatia by two points. England and Israel also have 11 points but have played six games.
12 03 2007
Russia coach Guus Hiddink on Monday named the following 20-man squad for his team′s Euro 2008 qualifier away to Estonia on March 24:
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeyev (CSKA Moscow), Vyacheslav Malafeyev (Zenit St Petersburg)
Defenders: Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), Roman Shishkin (Spartak Moscow)
Midfielders: Yevgeny Aldonin (CSKA Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Yegor Titov (Spartak Moscow), Vladimir Bystrov (Spartak Moscow), Dmitry Torbinsky (Spartak Moscow), Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Igor Denisov (Zenit St Petersburg)
Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow), Yevgeny Savin (Amkar Perm), Alexander Kerzhakov (Sevilla), Ivan Saenko (Nuremberg).
