Portsmouth forward and Croatia hopeful Adrian Segečić dealt blow ahead of World Cup Finals

Adrian Segečić‘s hopes of representing Croatia at this summer’s World Cup have suffered a blow.

The Pompey forward has been left out of manager Zlatko Dalić’s 26-man squad for next month’s tournament in North America and Mexico.

Instead, the Fratton favourite has to make do with a place on the stand-by list, with the 21-year-old one of seven players told to keep themselves available if serious injury or illness rules one of Dalić’s original picks out of the competition.

Croatia, who kick off their World Cup campaign against England on July 17, take on Belgium (June 2) and Slovenia (June 7) before heading across the Atlantic.

Any team involved can made a change to their official squad list up to 24 hours before their opening game.

Australian-born Segečić was in contention to represent Croatia after switching international allegiances back in March, a move that saw him feature for their under-21s against Turkey.

The former Sydney FC forward was also in the frame after finishing the season as Pompey’s top scorer with 11 goals.

Five of those goals came in the Blues’ last six games as John Mousinho’s side staved off the threat of relegation.

Included in that tally was a Segečić‘ hat-trick in Pompey’s trip to Stoke on the penultimate weekend of the season.

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