{"id":14178,"date":"2026-04-29T05:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=14178"},"modified":"2026-04-29T05:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:32:33","slug":"luka-modric-croatia-confident-of-captains-recovery-for-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=14178","title":{"rendered":"Luka Modric: Croatia confident of captain’s recovery for 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic believes Luka Modric will be fit to lead his side at this summer’s World Cup after the AC Milan midfielder had surgery on a broken cheekbone.<\/b><\/p>\n

The 40-year-old was injured following a clash of heads with Juventus midfielder Manuel Locatelli when their sides drew 0-0 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Milan said Modric had suffered a “complex, multi-fragment fracture of the left zygomatic bone” and had undergone “completely successful” surgery.<\/p>\n

The San Siro side did not specify how long Modric might be out but wished him “a speedy recovery ahead of the Fifa World Cup”.<\/p>\n

The World Cup starts on 11 June and Croatia open their campaign against England on 17 June.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been talking to Luka and wished him a successful surgery and a quality and speedy recovery,” said Dalic.<\/p>\n

“I am convinced that he will do everything to be ready for the World Cup, and we’ll provide full support.<\/p>\n

“I am confident that the recovery will go according to plan and that Luka, as team captain, will lead us at another major competition this summer.”<\/p>\n

Modric is set to miss the rest of the Serie A season as AC Milan chase a Champions League spot, with four games left to play.<\/p>\n

They are in third place on 67 points, with fourth-placed Juventus on 64 points and Como on 61 points along with Roma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic believes Luka Modric will be fit to lead his side at this summer’s World Cup after the AC Milan midfielder had surgery on a broken cheekbone. The 40-year-old was injured following a clash of heads with Juventus midfielder Manuel Locatelli when their sides drew 0-0 on Sunday. Milan said Modric had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}