Ákos Elek to take break from international football

In four weeks' time, Hungary's men's side will play their first matches in UEFA's new international tournament known as the Nations' League, a tough away fixture against Finland followed four days later by a behind-closed-doors clash with Greece. Rossi will take charge of the national team for the first time in these matches and although he'll only announce his first squad on 24th August, we already know Elek won't feature this time.

"I spoke with the coach in the last few days and asked him to not to invite me for this year's remaining matches", Elek told www.mlsz.hu. "Marco Rossi understood my request, which I thank him for. Whoever knows me knows all too well how important the national team is to me and I highlighted this to Mr Rossi too. Although my life currently means I'm unable to be available, I can naturally be counted upon for events which follow this year's matches if he (Rossi) sees that I can help the team. My decision is due to personal reasons which I don't want to go into, so I'd ask the press to respect this".

Naturally, this news doesn't make Marco Rossi's task any easier given that he is already missing numerous players through injury, but - as himself says - players are primarily people.

"Ákos Elek informed me straightforwardly and honestly about his situation, which I understand and naturally accept", Rossi said. "We're taking about professional footballers but they are also people and then only professional sportspeople after this, so life sometimes means they can't focus 100% on the game and at those times it is beyond doubt that we must help them as much as possible. This is precisely the case with Ákos, who has confirmed that his request refers solely to events and matches in 2018 and that after this period he would happily join up with the national team at any time".