Sick Tomas Rosicky to Miss Friendly vs Finland

Czech Republic captain Tomas Rosicky will miss Wednesday's friendly against Finland in Helsinki because of an illness, the Czech Football Association said on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Arsenal midfielder "felt sick and had a fever during the night, so we decided in the morning he won't fly to Finland with us," said the association's spokesman Ondrej Lipa.

The injury-prone Rosicky has scored 22 goals in 94 games for the Czech national team. "Of course it's a bit of a problem. I'm not saying a big one because we also wanted to try to play without him, but he would definitely play more than 45 minutes," said Czech head coach Pavel Vrba.

On Saturday, Rosicky played 15 minutes of extra-time in Arsenal's 3-2 FA Cup final win against Hull to earn his first major trophy with the Gunners since he joined them in 2006.