World Cup digest: World Cup digest: Fati in but Thiago & De Gea left out, Mane selected despite injury concerns

Spain included Barcelona's Ansu Fati but left out Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara and Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea from their 26-man World Cup squad on Friday.

Fati, now 20, made his international debut in 2020 at 17 and in his second game became the youngest player to score for Spain, breaking a record held since 1925 by Juan Errazquien.

But the forward is fighting his way back from four surgeries to repair an injury to his left knee, suffered in November 2020.

De Gea has fallen out of favour with Luis Enrique who said in March he "wanted to test other goalkeepers" and Thiago saw his role diminish with the rise of Barca teenagers Pedri, 19, and 18-year-old Gavi.

"Youth gives you freedom because you are not yet aware of the consequences," Luis Enrique said. "Yet, most of the youngsters that are with us are already in high-level teams.

"The bar that I'm setting is infinity. My goal is to compete in every game.

"There's no one outside of Spain who rules out Spain as a candidate to be among the best. We are going to give war, there is no doubt."

Spain have been drawn in Group E with Costa Rica, Germany and Japan.

Serbia's all-time top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, who is nursing an ankle injury, was named by coach Dragan Stojkovic in their 26-man squad for the World Cup in Qatar.

Fulham striker Mitrovic, who missed their Premier League defeat to Manchester City last weekend and is a doubt for Sunday's game against Manchester United, has bagged 50 goals for his country and is in the squad along with Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic.

The duo, who have scored 17 goals between them for their clubs this season, are expected to lead the line for Serbia at the tournament with Fiorentina's 24-year-old Luka Jovic waiting in