Austria coach Ralf Rangnick has said it would take a miracle for captain David Alaba to recover in time for the European championships from a severe knee injury, but he is not giving up all hope.
Defender Alaba ruptured a cruciate knee ligament in mid-December while playing for Real Madrid.
Players normally need at least six months to return from such an injury, and Austria's first match at the Euros in Germany is on June 17 against France.
"We have to be realistic with David. It would be a small miracle if he really makes it," Rangnick told the Austria Press Agency (APA) on Monday night.
Rangnick said that Alaba's rehabilitation is going according to plan and that he is not fully giving up on his key player.
"If someone can do it then it is David. He is doing everything for it. He really wants to play these Euros," Rangnick said.
The coach said that Alaba would visit the team for three days around the March 26 friendly against Turkey in Vienna, with Austria also playing Slovakia in Bratislava threee days earlier.
The squad was nominated on Monday and includes full back Stefan Lainer who returned to action January at his German club Borussia Mönchengladbach after successful treatment following a lymphoma diagnosis in summer.
"We were in contact all the time, that's why I knew how difficult thwe period was for him. I found it remarkable how he dealt with it mentally," Rangnick told APA.
