Raúl Out Of Spain's Prelim Euro 2008 Squad

[Pat Murphy]

Raúl Out Of Spain's Prelim Euro 2008 Squad

Raúl González will not be going to the European Championships with Spain after being left out of a list of 31 names called upon to have inoculations for the tournament.

Coach Luis Aragonés was forced to name a pool of players from which he will name his squad in May after UEFA stated that every squad member be vaccinated against a outbreak of Central European Encephalitis and that means having the jabs early.

Reluctantly, the veteran trainer has given over the names and Raúl's absence is not that unexpected with the Real Madrid skipper not having represented his country since September 2006. Aragonés has chosen to name the players that he tried once or twice with Barça's Bojan Krkic, Sevilla's Andrés Palop and Getafed duo Rubén De la Red and Pablo Hernández being included.

Los Merengues do have Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos include, while Barcelona have Bojan as well as Carles Puyol, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta. David Albelda has also been named despite not playing for Valencia since December, while Álvaro Arbeloa has also been retained along with Liverpool team-mates Xabi Alonso, Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres.

The absence of Raúl may meet with an outcry from the Madrid-biased press, such as AS, who were driving a campaign to see the goalscorer recalled. But that plan looks certain to have failed as those included in the 31 that do not make the initial squad, will be used as cover in case of injuries, meaning that Raúl will not even sneak in through the back door.

The 31 players called up on to have the vaccinations are:

Real Madrid - Iker Casillas, Serio Ramos
Barcelona - Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, Carles Puyol, Bojan Krkic
Real Mallorca - Daniel Güiza, Fernando Navarro
Arsenal - Cesc Fàbregas
Liverpool - Pepe Reina, Álvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres
Getafe - Rubén De la Red, Pablo Hernández
Sevilla - Andrés Palop
Real Betis - Juanito
Valencia - Carlos Marchena, Joaquín, David Villa, David Silva, David Albelda,
Atlético de Madrid - Pablo Ibañez, Mariano Pernía, Antonio López
Villarreal - Marcos Senna, Ángel, Joan Capdevilla
Espanyol - Raúl Tamudo, Luis García, Albert Riera

Lucas Brown, Goal.com

Goal.com - La Liga - Raúl Out Of Spain's Prelim Euro 2008 Squad


Bojan >>>> Raul

Few suprises here. Albelda isn't playing football so I think Aragones is delaying a decision on him. This squad is 95% solid in terms of what it's going to be at Euro 2008. 8 names need to be cut and I think the lower team form players like Riera, de la Red, F.Navarro and also Bojan will be the ones cut.

Raul is out due to Aragones saying that he causes too many problems in the Spain camps in previous tournaments. There's been a large Madrid based campaign to get Raul back in but it looks like the campaign will fail.