Sweden begins European Championship qualifying by facing Belgium on Friday, March 24, and against Azerbaijan three days later, both games at home at Friends.

Zlatan played just under 80 minutes against Udinese at the weekend. Whether he is ready to start against Belgium is up to manager Janne Andersson, according to himself.

– I told Janne that you can check during the week what you think I look like. I'm here to help the team on the field and on the sidelines," he said.

"If I'm ready to start then it's up to Janne.

He was also asked how he sees the competitive situation in the national team attack.

"I see it as positive. Everyone is on the move. A lot of people have had good matches now at the end. It's good with competition, if we're talking about the strikers, then they can't relax. Competition makes you better," he replies.

Ibrahimovic's latest international is an eleven-minute run-in in the World Cup play-off loss away to Poland last March.

The other teams in Sweden's group are Austria and Estonia. The championship will be played in Germany in 2024.

Clip: Nannskog: "It's Sweden's biggest challenge in the European Championship qualifiers"

Javascript is turned off

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Learn more about browser support

Nannskog: "It is Sweden's biggest challenge in the European Championship qualifiers" Photo: SVT/Bildbyrån