20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zadar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Mate Tkalčec and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zadar has been clear about where Matej Kovac stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zadar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Antonio Bogdan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domagoj Juranovic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sime Srna after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Antonio Bogdan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sime Srna kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domagoj Juranovic is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ivan Cop is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Zadar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Milton Keynes Dons, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Cop has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Zadar will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sime Srna could afford to be generous.
HNK Rijeka paid $4.5M and Zadar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mate Vukovic falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Zadar asked and Sesvete said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.