Aliou Cisse, the manager of Senegal, might miss his team’s World Cup match against England after being absent from the pre-match press conference due to illness.
On Sunday, the African champions will play England for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Each team’s managers are tasked with fielding media questions the day before each match. Cisse, the boss of Senegal, was taken off duty due to illness and replaced by his assistant. He is still anticipated to be on the sidelines on Sunday night, despite this.
Regis Bogaert, the assistant coach for Senegal, said: “He has been sick for a couple of days now. He let us take charge of training yesterday, obviously with his instructions to the players.
“Hopefully tomorrow he will be able to come and be on the bench with the players but we are sure at 10pm he will be there with the team.
“I can confirm he is sick and has a bit of a temperature, that is why we have to be careful with his situation.”
Despite the fact that England is the favourite to advance to the next round, Bogaert has urged his team to be motivated by Cameroon and Tunisia’s unexpected victories over Brazil and France.
“The message is a strong one, We’ve seen Cameroon can beat Brazil and Tunisia can beat France so we know Senegal can beat England,” Bogaert said.
“That’s what we’re aiming for. That’s an important message.”
Gareth Southgate issued a warning that Senegal are a dangerous team after his team qualified for the round of 16.
The Three Lions manager declared: “We’ll start studying the games to get ready for the game as soon as we get the coach to go home.
“We obviously know quite a few of the individuals, some big players playing in big leagues in Europe, some playing in England.
“We know that on the rankings we’ll be the favourites. We’ve got to deal with that. But we play a very dangerous team.”
On Sunday, December 4 at 19:00, England will take on Senegal.
