José Holebas

Olympiakos secured a third-place finish in its Champions League group to drop into the last 32 of the Europa League despite a 2-0 home loss to Porto on Wednesday.

The Greek soccer federation on Friday insisted that international defender Jose Holebas had been dropped from team training in Austria because of injury and not for any other reason.

Media reports out of Italy said that the 30-year-old player had trained normally with his Roma squad after departing from Austria on Tuesday.

Greece defender Jose Holebas has been ruled out of European Championship qualifiers against Finland and Northern Ireland after picking up a groin injury in a weekend Serie A match.

The 30-year-old left winger, a World Cup standout for Greece this year, has been replaced by Ψostas Giannoulis of Olympiakos.

By George Georgakopoulos

No beautiful horizon lies ahead for Greece after its performance at Belo Horizonte on Saturday and its 3-0 loss to Colombia in its opening game for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, as besides its defeat the national team was disappointing in many ways.