Fitzel not banking on Dimech for next week's friendly

Malta coach Dusan Fitzel is downbeat about Luke Dimech's chances of receiving the go-ahead to join Malta's squad for Wednesday's friendly against Lithuania.

Dimech, 29, received nine stitches to a head wound after being involved in a car crash earlier this week.

Asked about the Marsaxlokk defender's chances of being fit for the match, the national coach said: "Dimech suffered quite a serious injury at the back of his head.

"We have to speak about his condition but at the moment, I think 99 per cent, Luke will not be fit in time for the match."

Fitzel admitted to finding it hard to come to terms with the long pause from domestic league commitments.

"Having a long break from league football in the months of October and November is something which I hadn't experienced before in my career," Fitzel said.

"To be honest, I didn't know how to deal with this situation initially. Some of my players spent the time recovering from injuries and others took the opportunity to have a holiday. My hope is that the injured players have recovered and will be fit to play on Wednesday."

The Czech mentor is bracing himself for a tough match against Lithuania.

"Originally, I thought that Lithuania were in the same category as Moldova but their results in the Euro 2008 qualifiers suggest otherwise.

"It will surely be a difficult test for us but we have to make sure that we're well prepared."

Mark Miller, the U-21 coach, has promoted four players, Ryan Camilleri (Pietà), Ben Camilleri (Hibs), Tyrone Farrugia (Msida St Joseph) and Henry Bonello (Sliema Wanderers), from the U-19 squad to the U-21 ahead of the trip to Tunisia.

"In the last couple of weeks, the squad trained really well," Miller said. "There's a good competition for places and I'm very pleased with the attitude shown by the players in training."

Edwin Camilleri, the Malta U-19 coach, looked back on his team's encouraging displays in last month's UEFA tournament in Denmark where his selection narrowly missed out on qualification to the elite round after collecting two points.

"This was possibly the toughest group ever faced by our U-19s, considering the pedigree of France, Denmark and Finland," Camilleri said.

"I am convinced that putting on a fine performance in the opening 1-1 draw against Denmark bolstered the players' confidence and self-belief for the remaining two qualifiers.

"The best players in that tournament have now joined the U-21s. The others will have a chance to maintain their progress in the two friendlies against Georgia."

Oliver Spiteri, the coach of Malta's U-17 squad, declared himself pleased with his side's preparations for the November 17-22 UEFA tournament.

"We are now in the last phase of our preparation and the players have reached the desired level.

"The fact that this U-17 squad have had 11 friendly matches in less than a year shows how determined we are to do well in this tournament.

"It will not be easy because Italy and Serbia are big names. Andorra are something of an unknown proposition but we'll give it our best shot."

Michael Striz, coach of Malta's Futsal team, said: "For the past two months, we've trained three times every week and played four friendly matches against local clubs which we all won.

"Georgia are the strongest team in our group. The others are Kazakhstan and Cyprus. I hope Malta obtains good results in its debut in Futsal competitions."