Goran Pandev and Agim Ibraimi will not travel to Yerevan due to injuries, so manager John Toshack called up Mario Gjurovski to the national team.

The Macedonian national team started preparations today for the upcoming qualifiers against Armenia and Slovakia.  Unfortunately, John Toshack will not be able to count on attackers Goran Pandev and Agim Ibraimi who withdrew from the squad due to injuries.  Pandev showed up in Macedonia today but after being looked over by the team doctor, it was discovered that he has an injury so he will return to Napoli for medical treatment.  Meanwhile, Agim Ibraimi played 69 minutes for Maribor yesterday but he is not 100% and the Slovenian club asked FFM to withdraw Ibraimi so he can fully recover from his injury during the international break.  

Toshack has only named one replacement so far as Mario Gjurovski will join the squad and should be present for the first training later today.  Gjurovski has not been playing for his club team Metalurh Donetsk but he has done well for the national team.

The squad is very thin at the attacking department.  Macedonia now has only two strikers on the squad, Ivan Trickovski and Mirko Ivanovski, after the withdrawals of Pandev and Ibraimi.

The national team will have one training today and two more tomorrow before they leave for Yerevan on Wednesday.  The match will be played on Friday, 07.10 at 17.00 CET.