Sandrine Gruda was the most glaring omission from Pierre Vincent's 20-strong France women's preliminary squad that was announced on Monday.

Gruda has preferred to play in the WNBA this summer instead of making herself available for Les Bleues' EuroBasket Women 2009 qualifying campaign.

Vincent could not hide his disappointment.

"Sandrine could have been the engine for this new team," he said.

"But we will have to do without her.

"I can understand her project, but this makes things more complicated for us."

Some players have retired from the national team, like Sandra Le Dréan and Audrey Sauret-Gillespie, while others have decided to skip this summer like Edwige Lawson-Wade - another in the WNBA.

All four - Gruda,  Le Dréan, Sauret-Gillespie and Lawson-Wade - were in last year's squad that finished eighth at the EuroBasket Women and failed to earn a place at June's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Madrid.

"I can't do much if several players decided not to make themselves available," Vincent said. "I understood they no longer had the motivation for the French national team."

Vincent, who has just capped off a magnificent campaign with Bourges by leading them to the French domestic title and Coupe de France glory, was named Coach of the Year in France.

He has included UMMC Ekaterinburg guard Caroline Aubert in his group along with a lot of other new faces.

Aubert, who began the campaign with USO Basket Mondeville before joining Ekaterinburg before the European post-season, famously beat Bourges with a last-second three-pointer at this year's EuroLeague Women Final Four in Brno in the third-place game.

France are in Group C with Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary.

France preliminary squad for EuroBasket Women 2009 Qualifying Games:

Caroline Aubert, Clémence Beikes, Elodie Bertal, Aurélie Bonnan, Clarisse Costaz, Céline Dumerc, Jennifer Digbeu, Sandra Dijon, Elodie Godin, Emilie Gomis, Emmanuelle Hermouet, Pauline Jannault, Pauline Krawczyk, Anaël Lardy, Florence Lepron, Endene Miyem, Emmeline Endongue, Fatimatou Sacko, Yacine Sene, Isabelle    Yacoubou.