KIEV, May 31 (SW) - UKRAINIAN national coach Oleg Blokhin has confirmed the replacement for the injured Sergei Federov will be Under 21 international Olexander Yatsenko.

Yatsenko currently plays his football for FK Kharkiv but is on duty at the moment with the Under 21 squad in the European under-21 championship in Portugal.

Last week coach Blokhin had complained that his key players were not fit, saying,

"Some of my players including Andriy Shevchenko and Sergei Rebrov are currently trying to overcome injuries.

"We still have time to prepare for the tournament but so far the situation is not really optimistic. I hope that nobody else will suffer any injuries.”

This is the fourth member of the youth squad to be promoted to the full international side for the World Cup finals, after a terrible run of fortune for the Ukranians. Yatsenko joins Andrei Pyatov, Dmytro Chigrynskiy and Artem Milevskyi, all currently playing in the Competition in Portugal, where they are through to Friday’s semi-final against Serbia and Montenegro.

On a more positive note for the Ukranians, Andriy Shevchenko has been given the go-ahead to resume training after his battle with a knee injury, and Dynamo Kiev’s Sergei Rebrov has also been given the green light to return to training, after tests on a damaged thigh muscle revealed no serious damage.