Another week. This is the time that the coaches of the World Cup teams have to wait before they finally get to their…
Another week.
This is the time of the coaches World Cup teams have to wait before they finally get their hands on their players ahead of the shortened preparations for the tournament in Qatar.
Some players may have already retired from playing at the club.
Like Argentine forward Lionel Messi, who missed Paris Saint-Germain’s trip to Lorient in the French league on Sunday as a precaution due to what the team called inflammation of his Achilles tendon. It remains to be seen whether he will play for PSG again before then World Cupwhich starts on November 20.
Ditto for prolific Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, who sat out Fulham’s Premier League clash with Manchester City on Saturday with what manager Marco Silva described as a “bit” of ankle pain. Will he want to play against Manchester United on Sunday?
Then there is German veteran Thomas Mullerwho was ruled out — again — during Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga victory over Hertha Berlin on Saturday due to various injuries and illnesses and will be rested, according to coach Julian Nagelsmann, for Tuesday’s games against Werder Bremen and Schalke on Saturday to avoid risking further injury.
Indeed, with league and cup games in England, Spain, Italy and Germany midweek and at the weekend, you can expect plenty of World Cup-bound players to be absent from squads as a precaution.
Many of the World Cup squad announcements are happening this week, ahead of the final round of domestic games from Friday to Sunday. National team coaches will be crossing their fingers that there are no injuries at the weekend, with clubs required to release their players for the World Cup from Monday.
For some, it is too late. The striker of the German national team, Timo Werner, has torn his ankle ligaments played for Leipzig last week in the Champions League and was ruled out of the World Cup. that same night Ben Chilwell — one of two players in contention for the England left-back spot — suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Chelsea and will not travel to Qatar.
Midfielder of the French national team Paul Pogba’s long quest to regain full World Cup fitness has failed last week too when he was kicked out of the tournament.
As for Son Heung-min, arguably the biggest soccer star in Asia, he had a broken eye socket is in the Champions League for Tottenham and remains a doubt for the World Cup. South Korean fans await the fitness reports of their best player with hope, if not trepidation.
With so many club games in various competitions squeezed into the calendar for the mid-season World Cup, there is a strong possibility that more players will be injured in the run-up to the tournament.
BALE’S FITNESS
One player whose club commitments are now over is Gareth Bale, who will travel to Qatar as a league champion in the United States but with some nagging fitness issues – as always seems to be the case with the Wales captain.
Bale’s first competitive minutes in more than a month came for FC Los Angeles at MLS Cup Final on Saturday — and he marked them with a tying goal late in extra time to send the game against the Philadelphia Union into a penalty shootout. LAFC won their first league title.
After the game, Bale said he was “not 100% at the moment” with a “little problem” and had barely trained for the past three or four weeks.
It will take a lot more than that to stop Bale from playing in his first World Cup The first in Wales since 1958.
PRIORITY OF SWITZERLAND
Being the goalkeeper of the Swiss national team is not very lucky before the squad for the World Cup is announced on Wednesday.
With Yvon Mwoga out of Lorient’s game against PSG with an injury, all three goalkeepers who were named in Switzerland’s previous squad in September have been ruled out.
Jan Sommerundisputed first choice and Jonas Omlin both suffered ankle injuries in October playing for Borussia Mönchengladbach and Montpellier respectively.
Sommer told Swiss daily Blick that his World Cup prospects look good, although he appears unlikely to get playing time before the Group G match against Cameroon on November 24. Brazil and Serbia are also in the group.
Switzerland coach Murat Iaquin at least has another option in Gregor Kobel, who will be in fine form in the Champions League for Borussia Dortmund.
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