Pecnik suffered his injury in the closing stages of the match against the US

Slovenia forward Nejc Pecnik will miss the rest of the World Cup after breaking his right ankle in Friday's 2-2 draw against the United States.

The 24-year-old, whose goal sealed Slovenia's qualifying play-off win over Russia, suffered the injury in a collision with Clint Dempsey.

Pecnik had only come on as a second-half substitute for Zlatan Ljubijankic.

He will now miss Wednesday's game with England, where a draw would be enough to put Slovenia in the second round.

Although he was only on the pitch briefly, Pecnik was involved in one of the most significant incidents of the game against the US.

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Having come from 2-0 down, the Americans thought they had taken a dramatic late lead when Maurice Edu put the ball in the net with five minutes remaining, only to see the goal ruled out.

Although the American players claim that the referee ignored their requests for an explanation, television pictures suggested that US captain Carlos Bocanegra had his hands round Pecnik, preventing him from jumping for the ball.

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