The coach of Bulgaria's national football team, Plamen Markov, has included winger Martin Petrov in his 20-strong squad for the match against Italy on October 11, despite the fact that Petrov is still nursing an injury which he collected whilst on duty with Menchester City.

The winger missed Bulgaria's opening qualifier against Montenegro on September 6, a 2-2 draw, due to a sustained knee injury but is expected to recover "completely" in time for the October qualifiers, Markov told Meridian Match daily.

Manchester City assistant manager Mark Bowen was less optimistic, saying that "it is very unlikely for Petrov to recover on time for the match" in a statement on the club's official site.

Bulgaria will definitely not rely on the services of another Manchester City player, striker Valeri Bojinov, who is a long-term absence through injury, and the Croatian-born defender Igor Tomasic, who announced his retirement from the national team last week, giving Markov more selection headaches.

Levski Sofia keeper Georgi Petkov is summoned for national duty between the sticks to replace Stoyan Kolev, who plays for Romanian side Otelul. This means three Levski and two CSKA players will be featured in the Bulgarian squad.

Bulgaria host Italy on October 11 at the national stadium Vassil Levski in Sofia and visit Georgia four days later in crunch qualifiers from which Bulgaria needs to extract six points, or in the worst case scenario four, if they are to have any realistic chances of going to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

Inter Milan defender Marco Materazzi is likely to miss the qualifier with Bulgaria after he collected a thigh strain and is thought to be a certain absentee.

The Italian international limped off during the first half of Inter's UEFA Champions League 1-1 draw against Werder Bremen on October 1, after which he was put under a thorough medical exam and was told that he will miss the Sofia showpiece.

According to uefa.com, Materazzi is likely to be out of action for as much as four weeks, meaning he would also miss Italy's next qualifier against Montenegro. Fellow defenders Nicola Legrottaglie, Marco Cassetti and Fabio Grosso will also miss the match in Sofia through injuries, which have also robbed coach Marcello Lippi of the services of midfielder Andrea Pirlo and strikers Vincenzo Iaquinta and Marco Borriello.

Alessandro del Piero, who is fit to play, was left out of the squad, Lippi deciding to call four new faces to the team - Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi, Udinese forward Simone Pepe, Napoli defender Fabiano Santacroce and Napoli midfielder Christian Maggio.

Meanwhile, the Bulgaria under-21 team will take on Greece on the same day Bulgaria will entertain Italy in the World Cup qualifier. The young Lions will battle it against Greece on October 11 at 4pm on Gerena Stadium.

Bulgaria's squad for the match against Italy in full: goalkeepers Dimitar Ivankov (Bursaspor) and Georgi Petkov (Levski Sofia); defenders Alexander Tounchev (Leicester City), Valentin Iliev (Terek Grozny), Ivan Ivanov (CSKA Sofia), Zhivko Milanov and Lucio Vagner (Levski Sofia), Stanislav Manolev and Mihail Venkov (Litex Lovech); midfielders Stiliyan Petrov (Aston Villa), Martin Petrov (Manchester City), Chavdar Yankov (Hannover), Stanislav Angelov and Dimitar Rangelov (Energie Cottbus), Velizar Dimitrov (Metallurh Donetsk), Stanislav Genchev (FC Vaslui), Blagoi Georgiev (Slavia Sofia), Ivelin Popov (Litex Lovech); strikers Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United) and Zdravko Lazarov (CSKA Sofia).