Bae Jun-ho injured his ankle in the match against Trinidad and Tobago last week. | Photo Credit: Reuters

South Korea’s Bae Jun-ho is unlikely to feature in his nation’s FIFA World Cup opener against the Czech Republic in Guadalajara on Thursday ​as the midfielder continues to recover from an injury to his ankle sustained in ‌a 5-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago 10 days ago.

The 22-year-old ​Stoke City playmaker missed his nation’s 1-0 victory over El ⁠Salvador on Thursday and has trained on his own in an increasingly unlikely bid to be ready for South Korea’s opening Group A clash against Miroslav Koubek’s side.

Bae is ‌one of the youngest players in coach Hong Myung-bo’s squad and is expected to add a dash of youthful vigour to a ‌line-up that laboured throughout Asia’s preliminaries before securing its berth at ‌an ⁠11th consecutive World Cup.

The Koreans reached the last 16 in 2022, ⁠with Hwang Hee-chan scoring a stoppage time winner against Portugal to take his team into the knockout rounds and the Wolverhampton Wanderers forward is keen for a repeat performance at the ​upcoming tournament.

“If I can have ‌another play like that, it will be great for myself and for our team,” said Hwang, who will be appearing at his third World Cup. “I am working hard for a moment like that.

“Every match is important, but ‌the first match is especially so.” The Czechs enter the World ​Cup riding a wave of confidence after six wins in qualification and friendly matches following a crisis late last year when ⁠it lost to the Faroe Islands.

That result marked the low point of a then-stuttering qualifying campaign and led to the appointment of 74-year-old Koubek, who guided ‌the Czechs through the playoffs to their first World Cup appearance since 2006.

The Czechs will seek to impose their physicality on the South Koreans, potentially looking to two-metre Slavia Prague striker Tomas Chory who headed in a goal in the 3-1 tournament tune-up match against Guatemala on June 6.

Organisational discipline will feature heavily and is something Koubek believes will need to improve following some ‌miscommunication during its 3-1 win over Guatemala.

“Some defensive solutions were not entirely decisive, that’s true,” ​Koubek told reporters after the match. “We should have been more assertive in the duels. There were some slip-ups.”

The Czechs will hope ⁠Patrik Schick’s goal against Guatemala means the Bayer Leverkusen striker and Euro 2020 joint ⁠top scorer has found form while Hoffenheim striker Adam Hlozek offers another experienced option up front.

Koubek will also lean on West Ham ‌midfielder Tomas Soucek and 35-year-old Vladimir Darida -- who earned a recall to the national team after impressing for Hradec Kralove in the Czech top ​tier this season -- to provide experience and stability.

Published on Jun 10, 2026