ST PETERSBURG: Zenit St Petersburg striker Hulk has pulled out of Saturday's World Cup qualifying draw, only days after complaining of “gross and ugly” racism in Russian football.

The Brazil forward will be replaced as a draw assistant by former Russia captain Alexey Smertin, FIFA said in a statement before adding the player had withdrawn due to club commitments.

Zenit visit FC Ural in a league match on Sunday but there have been no alterations to the fixture list since football's ruling body announced on Wednesday that Hulk would take part in the World Cup event.

“We found out the coach of Zenit (Andre Villas-Boas) made a decision based on purely sporting reasons to withdraw this player from taking part,” organising committee chief executive Alexey Sorokin told a news conference.

“I reiterate this decision was purely of a sporting nature because Zenit has a game on Sunday in Yekaterinburg so the coach decided the team need to leave together.”

Hulk, whose real name is Givanildo Vieira de Sousa, told Zenit's website: “It was a great honour for me and the club to be invited to the draw.

“Every player in the world would be happy to be a part of such an important event,” added the 28-year-old who joined from Porto in 2012.

“It is with great regret I have to inform I will not be able to attend the draw because of the ongoing training process and upcoming away match...long flight and time zone changes make it impossible for me to be present.”

RUSSIAN CRITICISM

Other former players who will take part in Saturday's draw include Ronaldo (Brazil), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon) and Oliver Bierhoff (Germany).

Russia, 2018 World Cup hosts, have repeatedly been criticised for failure to tackle racism in domestic football and Hulk complained bitterly about the issue on Monday.

“It happens at almost every match in Russia but the world does not hear about it because they try to keep it quiet,” he told reporters.

“I see it happening all the time. I used to get really angry about it but now I just send a kiss to the fans and try not to get angry.”

The problem again came under the spotlight when Ghanaian Emmanuel Frimpong said he was racially abused in a match at Spartak Moscow.

Frimpong, who plays for Ufa, was sent off and later suspended for two league matches after raising a finger to fans who he said had made monkey chants.

On Wednesday, the Russian Football Union rejected the racism allegations, a ruling Frimpong said was “beyond a joke."