English "Stoke City" defender Maksym Talovyerov will not be able to help the Ukrainian national team in the 2026 World Cup play-off match against the Swedish national team. Talovyerov will be replaced by Zhytomyr "Polissya" defender Eduard Sarapiy. This was reported by the UAF press service, UNN reports.
Eduard Sarapiy will replace Maks Talovyerov in the national team squad
It is reported that the Stoke City player suffered an injury that will prevent him from playing in March.
The Polissya defender has been moved from the reserve list to the main squad.
For reference
Eduard Sarapiy is a 26-year-old defender for Zhytomyr "Polissya", who joined the Zhytomyr team in 2024, moving from "Dnipro-1". He is a graduate of Kyiv "Dynamo".
This season, Sarapiy has played 21 games for "Polissya" in all tournaments, scoring two goals. He was previously called up to the Ukrainian U-17 national team. The defender has already been called up to the national team, but has not yet played for the national team, not counting official matches.
He was on the bench for matches against Scotland (0:0) and England (0:2) in 2022-2023, when he played for "Dnipro-1", and in 2023 he played 45 minutes in a friendly match for the national team against English "Brentford-2".
Addition
As reported by UNN, the head coach of the Ukrainian national team Serhiy Rebrov announced the squad of the Ukrainian national team that will prepare for the match against Sweden in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The main list included 26 football players. Another nine players are on the reserve list. Debut calls were received by the goalkeeper and forward of Kyiv "Dynamo" Ruslan Neshcheret and Matviy Ponomarenko, as well as the defender of Zhytomyr "Polissya" Borys Krushynskyi.
It should be noted that although the squad includes Shakhtar Donetsk defender Yukhym Konoplya and Italian Genoa midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi, they will not be able to help the national team in the match against Sweden due to disqualification.
Recall
On March 26, the Ukrainian national team will play in the semi-finals of the 2026 World Cup qualifying play-offs against Sweden. On March 31, our team will either face the final of the qualifying play-offs with the winner of the Poland national team - Albania national team pair, or a friendly match with the team that lost in the same pair.
The Ukrainian national team will play both matches as the home team at the "Ciutat de València" stadium (Valencia, Spain).