Madrid - The Spanish football federation announced early on Sunday that five players had been permitted to leave the squad and return to Spain immediately. These five players - Xavi, Carles Puyol, Cesc Fabregas, Carlos Marchena and Daniel Guiza - will, therefore, miss Spain's final World Cup qualifying game, away to Bosnia on Wednesday.
Xavi, Marchena and Guiza picked up slight injuries in Saturday's 2-1 win away to Armenia.
Puyol is suspended for the Bosnia match after picking up a yellow card against Armenia. Fabregas, for his part, has been released because of an undisclosed family problem.
Spain have won all nine of their matches in Group 5 and have thus qualified for the World Cup finals for the ninth successive time, a record bettered only by Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Italy.
National manager Vicente del Bosque is expected to field a reserve-packed side against Bosnia, who clinched second place in the group on Saturday with a 2-0 win away to minnows Estonia.
