Full squad in attendance as Rossi's preparations begin

Monday also saw the last squad members arrive in Telki from abroad to start preparing for Thursday's UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier against Croatia in Split. As reported earlier, Rossi's plans have been hit by the loss of Máté Pátkai to injury and Ádám Nagy to suspension (the latter for the first match against Croatia only), on top of which Dominik Szoboszlai and Krisztián Tamás have also been ruled out of Thursday's crucial fixture and doubts persist as to the fitness of right-back Barnabás Bese. Marco Rossi has therefore invited János Ferenczi and Endre Botka to join his squad.

Ferencváros midfielder Dávid Sigér made his debut last month in a friendly match against Montenegro and it is quite possible that he could make his competitive debut for Hungary this week.

"Because of the injuries, I may have more of a role in the upcoming games, but it won't affect my approach; even if I get fewer chances, I do the same thing," said Sigér commented in a pre-training press interview. "It's also a huge thing for me to be in the squad and help the team, and I'm ready to prove in every training session and match that I merit a place in the national team". I also feel that I can benefit from playing high-level matches with Ferencváros in the Europa League, something which is a huge opportunity for me to progress and develop. Playing in multiple competitions can take a lot out of a person, but the chance of national-team selection gives you new impetus and you don't feel so tired. I focus on solving these tasks and I face up to every challenge. In the home game against Croatia in Budapest, we were able to show we were capable of a brilliant result but we also saw our opponent produce a similar performance against Slovakia last month. We'll do our best to be successful again against the World Cup finalists but I think getting a point against them would also be a great result.

Róbert Feczesin, the Újpest striker, is back in the national-team setup after eight years, his most recent appearance coming in November 2011 against Poland.

"I'm glad to be a member of the national team again. I've been working very hard lately but honestly I didn't expect selection, especially since I've only recently come back to Hungary. We have a difficult task ahead; so far, we've just been focusing on the away match against Croatia, in which we will of course be trying to get a good result. Of course, World Cup silver medallists Croatia are favourites to win the match, but I think anything can happen and we have a good enough team to spring a surprise in Split. For that though, we have to perform to our optimum without any mistakes at all. We have a few players missing, which really makes things difficult, but whoever is a member of the national team is here because of their ability to play at this level and to make up for any absences".

Thursday's match will feature Italian referees, Daniele Orsato being the man with the whistle along with his assistants Lorenzo Manganelli, Fabiano Preti and Davide Massa.