Öqvist injury shocks Sweden

Sweden forward Josefine Öqvist is out of September's FIFA Women's World Cup after tearing anterior cruciate knee ligaments.

Dennerby devasted
The 23-year-old suffered the injury in a league fixture for her club Linköping FC against Kopparbergs/Göteborg and an examination confirmed that Öqvist will not be fit to return until the end of the year. She made her debut in 2002 and was in the Sweden squad that reached the 2003 World Cup final and UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2005™ last four, but it is in recent months that Öqvist has become a regular starter and goalscorer and national coach Thomas Dennerby said: "I didn't imagine it would be this bad. There is no natural replacement for Öqvist. She is unique and has been one of our best in the national team this spring." Sweden return to action in Denmark for a 30 August friendly and meet Nigeria, the United States and Korea DPR in their World Cup group in China from 11 September.