Hungarian national team faces injury crisis ahead of Nations League matches

Hungary’s national football team just hit a wall before the games even started. Three established starters, including the squad’s primary goal threat, have been ruled out of the upcoming Nations League B campaign, forcing coach Marco Rossi into emergency roster surgery ahead of a grueling four-match schedule.

Barnabás Varga, the center-forward who has been Hungary’s most important attacking weapon, suffered a thigh injury during a Greek Cup match for his club AEK Athens on September 17. He’s expected to be sidelined for at least three weeks, a timeline that effectively wipes him off the international calendar for this window entirely.

The damage keeps spreading

Roland Sallai, the Galatasaray-based midfielder and forward, withdrew from the squad on September 21 due to injury. Callum Styles, the West Bromwich Albion defender, pulled out the same day.

Rossi moved quickly. Donát Bárány, a striker plying his trade at ADO Den Haag in the Netherlands, received an emergency call-up following Varga’s injury. Bárány had scored for his club side the day before his selection. Midfielder Zsolt Nagy from Puskás Akadémia and attacker Milán Tóth from Vasas were also drafted in to fill the gaps left by Sallai and Styles.

Four games in eleven days

The schedule offers no mercy. Hungary faces Ukraine at home on September 25, travels to Northern Ireland on September 28, hosts Georgia on October 2, and then plays Ukraine again away on October 5. Four Nations League B fixtures crammed into an eleven-day window.

Rossi’s long tenure faces another test

Marco Rossi has been managing Hungary since June 2018. He signed a contract extension running through 2030, a signal that the Hungarian Football Federation views him as a long-term project leader rather than a short-term appointment.