Senegal coach Aliou Cisse is a doubt for their last 16 tie against England on Sunday after missing the pre-match press conference due to illness.

Cisse absent from press conferenceAssistant coach confirmed illnessAlso revealed he had missed Friday’s training

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Senegal’s assistant manager Regis Bogaert and third-choice goalkeeper Alfred Gomis took the meeting with journalists on Saturday in Cisse’s place. Bogaert revealed that the manager had also been absent from Friday’s training session having been ill for several days.

WHAT THEY SAID: “He has been sick for a couple of days now,” Bogaert revealed. “He let us take charge of training yesterday, obviously with his instructions to the players. Hopefully tomorrow he will be able to come and be on the bench with the players but we are sure at 10pm he will be there with the team.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Despite Bogaert’s assurances, Cisse’s absence from training as well as from his side’s press conference just a day before their match against England will be of some concern to Senegal. Cisse helped mastermind a second-placed finish in Group A with a 2-1 win against Ecuador on matchday three, and will be sorely missed if he is unable to step out in the dugout on Sunday.

STORY IN THREE PHOTOS:

DID YOU KNOW? Against Ecuador, the Lions of Teranga became the first African nation to beat a South American side at the World Cup since Cameroon vs Colombia in 1990, ending a 21-game winless run (D4 L17).