Valmir Nafiu, Dejan Iliev and Eldis Bajrami have all withdrawn from the Macedonian U21 national team for the upcoming qualifier against Norway on 10 September.

The Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM) announced today that attacker Valmir Nafiu, keeper Dejan Iliev and midfielder Eldis Bajrami have all withdrawn from the U21 national team due to alleged injuries.

However, both Nafiu and Bajrami played for their respective teams this past Tuesday.  Nafiu played 69 minutes for Hamburg in a friendly against lower division side Eintracht Lüneburg, while Bajrami played 73 minutes for the Rapid Wien Amateurs in their game against in-city rival Austria Wien Amateurs.  Bajrami also happened to score a goal in the 10th minute as his team won 4:1.

Below are the lineups involving both players from Tuesday’s games:

Hamburg: Stritzel – Sobiech, Djourou (69. Jordan), Westermann – Tah (46. Mancienne), Demirbay – Diekmeier, Nafiu (69. Halili), Lam (69. Brauer) – Beister (69. Brüning), Ilicevic (69. Maggio)

Rapid Wien Amateurs: Knoflach; Pavelic, Lienhart, Hofmann, Denner; Bajrami (73. Steiner), Haring, Yilmaz; Plank, Randak (63. Starkl), Egho (83. Kamenjasevic).

Meanwhile, after the huge blunder that keeper Stole Dimitrievski made in the Serbia friendly, manager Boban Babunski was expected to start Dejan Iliev in goal for the Norway qualifier.  However, Iliev, a member of Arsenal’s youth academy, also withdrew with an alleged injury.  On 30 August 2013, Iliev played the entire game for Arsenal U21 in a 3:0 victory over Blackburn U21.  That was only several days ago.  Arsenal U21 next plays on 12 September 2013, two days after the Norway qualifier, so we will see if Iliev plays for Arsenal U21 in that game.

To replace the three players, Boban Babunski has called up keeper Andreja Efremov of Metalurg, midfielder Filip Naumchevski of Horizont Turnovo and Bregalnica Shtip striker Simeon Hristov.