Edin Dzeko is ready to go.
Bosnia-Herzegovina head coach Sergej Barbarez says the 40-year-old striker will be available for the country's World Cup opener against Canada on Friday.
Dzeko hasn't played since mid-May due to a right shoulder injury originally suffered when the Bosnians upset Italy in a European playoff over two legs back in March to qualify for the expanded 48-team event.
The former Manchester City man, who now plays for German club Schalke, has scored 73 times across 148 international appearances.
Barbarez was asked what Dzeko — his captain and talisman up top — means to people back home.
"I try to speak as little as possible, because words are redundant here," the coach said through a translator at his pre-match press conference Thursday. "People like Dzeko have earned, with the character and the mentality, praises to be sung about them.
"He doesn't have to prove anything to anybody because he has done it all … I'm extremely happy to have such a player among our ranks."
Bosnia, which is in Group B alongside Canada, Switzerland and Qatar, is set to take the field at its second World Cup after also qualifying in 2014. One of two returnees from the squad that finished with a victory and two losses in group play 12 years ago, Dzeko was a full participant at Thursday's training session for the 64th-ranked Bosnians.
No. 30 Canada, the event's co-hosts with the United States and Mexico, is looking for its first-ever victory at the global showcase after losing all three of its matches at both 1986 and 2022 tournaments.
Barbarez said Bosnia — a country that needed playoff wins over Wales and the Italians to make it on a plane to North America — has embraced being underdogs.
"We play with our hearts," he said. "That has been our advantage so far, but we should not underestimate the heart of Canadians. They are hosts and they deserve every respect."
Dzeko, who has not been made available to the media since the team arrived in Toronto, penned "A Letter to the Children of Bosnia" in the online The Players' Tribune publication earlier Thursday.
Dzeko detailed his experience during the four-year siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s during the Bosnian War when he was a child, all the way up to turning pro and getting his country to his first World Cup.
"I have just one message for you," he wrote. "Nothing is impossible."
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