Dejan Lovren Set to Miss Croatia’s Euro 2016 Campaign With Devastating Ego Injury

If there is a defining tale of hubris in the world of modern football, this is it. In a game that prioritises the individual more than ever before, which elevates the ego, which pays vast sums in image rights, sponsorship and promotion to the biggest personalities, one man has just overstepped the mark.

That man is Dejan Lovren. Like Icarus, his conceit has seen him soar too close to the sun. Like Icarus, he has seen his waxen wings melt before his eyes. Like Icarus, he's just proved himself to be a massive, massive plonker. Here is his tale of woe.

Having agitated for a transfer from Southampton to Liverpool in the summer of 2014, Lovren completed his move to Merseyside that July. Once he arrived, under the stoic tutelage of Brendan Rodgers, his form steadily declined until he was considered perhaps the biggest defensive liability at a club full of defensive liabilities. For obvious reasons, this did his international career no favours. Having previously been a star of the Croatian national team, his poor form – and a series of niggling injuries – saw Domagoj Vida and Vedran Ćorluka pair up in the centre of defence, usurping his starting position in the process.

With the arrival of Jurgen Klopp, Lovren's domestic form improved somewhat. Though his performances have been far from spectacular, they were enough to convince his national team manager, Ante Čačić, that he deserved a place in Croatia's Euro 2016 squad. Now, though, Lovren has decided that a mere place in the squad simply isn't good enough.

Speaking to Croatian newspaper Sportske Novosti earlier this week, Lovren issued Čačić an ultimatum. He said: "I will not apologise, I will either travel to France as a starting player or I am not going". If only for a fleeting moment, Lovren tempted fate. Now, he has been struck down by a mighty blow.

Considering that Lovren was told that he'd "made a step backward, away from the squad" after last month's friendly against Hungary – a match in which he was an unused substitute, and criticised for his lacklustre warm up – it was highly inadvisable to further pique Čačić's anger. Now, in a turn of events highly predictable to anyone without a blinding sense of self-importance, Čačić has called Lovren's bluff.

"I already said when appointed as coach that the Croatia squad is above any individual" Cacic has reportedly stated. "I will not give up that view for anyone.

"In Croatia's locker room there is no place for ultimatums, there should be respect for the Croatian jersey, team-mates and coach."

Consequently, Lovren looks set to miss Euro 2016 entirely. Rumour has it that, if he does indeed miss out, he'll be included on the international injury list. Next to his name, where one usually finds "hamstring" or "groin strain", it will simply read – ego.