The former captain of the Russian national football team, Artem Dzyuba, asked not to be called up for family reasons, thus giving up the end-of-month boarding school of the national team due to the "situation in Ukraine", where several of his relatives reside.
This was reported by the Ukrainian website Ukrinform, which takes up the news published by the Football Federation, today called 'RFU'.
"On Sunday we spoke to Artem on the phone, he assured us that ... he really wants to play for the national team. But now, due to the difficult situation in Ukraine, where he has many relatives, he apologized and asked for family circumstances not to to invite him to this meeting. We have decided to stay in touch with him, "said coach Valery Karpin.
The withdrawal of the Russian team is expected in Moscow between 21 and 27 March.
On February 28th, Fifa and Uefa excluded Russian clubs and the national team from participating in all international competitions.
Dzyuba, born in 1988, is the best scorer in the history of the Russian leagues and the best scorer in the history of the Russian national football team.
The footballer's father is originally from Lubny, in the Poltava region, he worked as a policeman and played football in regional championships.
The striker was recently publicly attacked by Vitaliy Mykolenko, Everton's Ukrainian full-back, who accused him of not taking a stand on the war.
The striker's response was ready, and he in turn accused Mykolenko of making easy accusations from the heat from his comfortable armchair in England.