After Manolas ban, Skibbe sweats over Sokratis ahead of Zagreb

Greece central defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos remains doubtful for the national team's do-or-die play-offs with Croatia after the rather superficial injury that forced him out of last Saturday's Borussia Dortmund game. In view of this and the ban on Costas Manolas, coach Michael Skibbe has called up two more central defenders.

Greece travels to Zagreb on Thursday for the first leg of the home-and-away World Cup qualification matches without Manolas who last week received a one-game ban from FIFA for deliberately seeking a booking at the Cyprus vs Greece qualifier last month.

Papastathopoulos was substituted at the Borussia vs Bayern Munich Bundesliga clash, but the scan on Sokratis's leg showed no significant problems. He arrived in Athens on Sunday and will undergo mild treatment aiming to take part in the matches on Thursday in Croatia and on Sunday in...