As the Poles go to a critical game against the Czech Republic on Saturday, defender Damien Perquis has been officially ruled out.

The French-born Polish footballer had been in doubt for the game after suffering a knee injury, with his availability due to be determined after training on Friday.

While having a practice session, the Sochaux man complained of a slight discomfort in his knee, just after 15 minutes of practice. He was forced to abandon the training, as assistant coach Tomasz Frankowski declared that Grzegorz Wojtkowiak replace Perquis.

The news definitely is a bad one to manager Franciszek Smuda, as Perquis has been a very valuable player, playing the entire 90 minutes in the team's last two matches.

A recent recruit to the national team, Perquis expressed his desire to play for the Poles on December 2008. In January 2011, it was reported that Perquis had filed his citizenship application papers, to be allowed to play for the team. Perquis was approved of Polish citizenship on September 1, 2011, with an approval by then president Bronislaw Komorowski, as his parents actually faced a lot of problems like missing documents.

On September 2011, Perquis made his debut in the Polish national team during a 2–2 friendly draw against Germany in Gdansk.

On a related note, there had also been doubts on the condition of Perquis’ teammates Eugen Polanski and Dariusz Dudka, although they are believed to play on Sunday.

Polanski, a midfielder has this to say about the coming game:

"We know we have to win but it's not a case of whether or not that's an advantage, we simply have this message in our heads,"

"From the first minute we have to kick their arses. I'm sorry to use this expression but that's how it works,” added the Mainz 05 midfielder.

"If we play like we did against Russia then we'll have no problems."

Poland are in third place in Group A with two points, trailing the Czech Republic by one. Poland must emerge victorious to reach the knock-out rounds for the first time in the history of the European Championships while the Czechs know that anything other than a win could see them eliminated.