Tokyo2020: Final list of Russia players composed

The final list of 12 players of the Russia Volleyball National Team for the Olympic Games in Tokyo has been announced.
The Finnish expert, Tuomas Sammelvuo, has finally made his final decision: he crossed out middle blocker Ilya Vlasov and libero Evgeniy Baranov from the group that conducted preparation in the homeland.

The list had to be composed without one of the major pillars Dmitriy Muserskiy on it, due to the player’s injury.
After a perfect season in Japan in which a 32-year-old middle-blocker led the Suntory Sunbirds to a historic championship title and became the MVP of the tournament and Best Attacker, it was expected that he will be one of the key players for his national team in its gold medal aspirations in Tokyo, especially due to the fact that he can successfully cover two positions at once – the middle blocker’s (his natural role) and the opposite’s (if necessary).
Muserskiy played a little in the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Nations League and missed the last few matches.
He did not specify which is the injury in question but said to the media in Russia that he came to the VNL with it and it got worsened during the competition in Rimini. Muserskiy stressed that the operation is not needed, but it will take him a long time to recover.

Recall that he missed the Rio 2016 due to injury as well.

The list of 12 contains the following names:

Setters:
Igor Kobzar (Zenit St. Petersburg)
Pavel Pankov (Dinamo Moscow)

Opposites:
Maksim Mikhaylov (Zenit-Kazan)
Victor Poletaev (Zenit, St. Petersburg)

Middle blockers:
Artem Volvich (Zenit-Kazan)
Ilyas Kurkaev (Lokomotiv Novosibirsk)
Ivan Yakovlev (Zenit St. Petersburg)

Outside hitters:
Denis Bogdan (Fakel Novy Urengoy)
Dmitriy Volkov (Zenit-Kazan)
Egor Kliuka (Zenit St. Petersburg)
Yaroslav Podlesnykh (Dinamo Moscow)

Libero:
Valentin Golubev (Zenit-Kazan)