One of the regular members of Macedonia’s U21 national team, midfielder/winger Hristijan Denkovski, is no longer tied contractually with Groningen.

Hristijan Denkovski, who started the U21 qualifier against Ukraine earlier this month, has departed Dutch club Groningen. He mainly played for the reserves at Groningen II, but he was not happy with his role this season. Denkovski played consistently last year, before being bitten by the injury bug, but that was not the case in the current campaign. He rarely featured for Groningen II this season, so the two sides chose to go their separate ways.

This news equates to more problems for U21 manager Blagoja Milevski. Besides Denkovski, Dorian Babunski and Filip Pivkovski also remain without clubs at the present moment. All three of those guys are viewed as important pieces by Milevski, so their club status hurts the depth of the team.

Macedonia U21 plays its next qualifier versus Norther Ireland on October 13, or less than a month from today. Babunski and Pivkovski were not called-up by Milevski for the Ukraine clash due to their club situation, and now Denkovski can be added to that list. We’ll see whether the U21 manager counts on those three guys for Northern Ireland.

By them being free agents, all three can still sign in most countries. Hopefully that will happen in the foreseeable future. At their age, it is imperative to play and train consistently in order not to stunt their development.