Portugal is hoping that Spain's victory at this years World Cup might prove decisive in their joint 2018 World Cup bid.

Portugal have announced that Deportivo la Coruna defender Ze Castro is the player to be omitted from the final 23-man squad for the World Cup.

Seleccao boss Carlos Queiroz had named 24 players for his preliminary squad for the competition with fears that Real Madrid defender Pepe would not be fit for South Africa.

Ze Castro had been linked with the drop since the weekend, and the Portuguese Football Federation has now confirmed the reports on its official website.

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Portugal struggled to qualify for the 2010 World Cup and needed a two-legged play-off win against Bosnia to book their ticket for South Africa. However, head coach Carlos Queiroz never had any doubts about whether his men would get the job done.

"We always believed that Portugal were moving in the right direction. It was my clear impression that the first two or three results were not a testament to the quality of the team. So the most important thing was to believe that we were moving in the right direction," said Queiroz to fifa.com.