Daniel Avramovski and Enis Bardhi, two important players on the U21 squad, will miss the Iceland qualifier due to injuries.

Heading into the U21 training camp, the youth squad was already missing goalkeeper Dejan Iliev and midfielder Hristijan Denkovski due to injuries. That list has now grown after Avramovski and Bardhi also went down with injuries.

Avramovski continues to have major problems staying healthy. He is a talented player, but he happens to be injury prone. The most important thing for a player is availability, and Daniel just hasn’t shown the ability to stay healthy. He suffered a knee injury at Monday’s training. Although he still hasn’t been ruled out, his status is very doubtful, so Macedonia U21 can’t be counting on him for the Iceland game.

Meanwhile, Bardhi aggravated an earlier injury to his meniscus. He has been ruled out and manager Blagoja Milevski has excused him to leave the camp.

A main problem with the injuries is that Avramovski and Bardhi play the same position (attacking midfield), so that spot is very thin now. Furthermore, another attacking midfielder, David Babunski, has still not arrived due to club obligations. Babunski is the only called-up player that is not present with the squad. He has one more game for Barcelona B on June 7. David is expected to join his U21 teammates on Monday, June 8.

The injuries to Avramovski and Bardhi mean that Nicola Kuleski, on trial at the camp, will surely make the trip to Iceland. He plays in midfield and manager Blagoja Milevski will need added depth there due to the situation within the team.

Macedonia U21 traveled to the city of Ohrid on Wednesday. They will train there over the next couple of days before flying out to Iceland for the June 11 qualifier, a game that will mark the start of a new U21 qualifying cycle.