David Zima

Zima remains sidelined heading into the Oct. 13 Champions League clash against Sabah FC, according to Slavia Prague chairman Jaroslav Tvrdik, who addressed his situation in an open letter defending the club's handling of injured players called up by the Czech national team.

Zima was unable to continue for the second half of Thursday's 3-2 loss to Lens due to an injury he suffered late in the first half.

Zima (head) is in the starting lineup for Thursday's UCL match against Lens.

Zima (head) trained with the group Wednesday for the first time since being substituted with the injury and will be assessed in Thursday's warm-up ahead of the Champions League opener against Lens, coach Jindrich Trpisovsky said. "Today he joined the team, he had been training individually until now. He will decide tomorrow morning during warm-up. If I had to guess now, I would say he will be available. We all know what shape he's in; he is important to us. We are doing everything to have him available on Thursday evening. Today during training, it looked good that he might be available, but the final decision will be made tomorrow."

Zima's availability for Thursday's Champions League opener against Lens is unlikely after he came off against Zbrojovka Brno on Saturday with a suspected concussion, coach Jindrich Trpisovsky said after the game. "Zima will probably have a minor concussion; his head was spinning, so we'll see."