Giovani Lo Celso’s injury, with an apparent muscle detachment that could leave him out of the World Cup, and the possibility that Franco Armani will lose his place in heads-up play at the behest of the recovered Juan Musso, as he is the third goalkeeper. the evolving news that mainly covered the Argentine national team 17 days before the start of Qatar 2022.
“I am not going to take any player who is injured and is not available for the first World Cup match”, confided the coach, Lionel Scaloni, in recent hours, while bad news continued to arrive from Spain regarding Lo Celso, “a footballer who in his position has no replacement in the national team,” warned the coach himself.
Based on this, the next steps for the recovery of the Villarreal midfielder, from Spain, whose pass is owned by Tottenham Hotspur, will be decisive because the player does not want to undergo surgery, quite the opposite of what the English club’s coaching staff would say .
It is that the initial tear that seemed to have no other consequence than the three weeks of recovery, or a little less, that this type of injury usually demands, then led to versions of a detachment in the insertion of the muscle in the biceps femoris of the leg right of which it is not yet known reliably if it is partial or total.
Despite the fact that this initial diagnosis needs some other study to finally determine the exact degree of severity of the injury, Lo Celso has already warned that he does not intend anything other than to carry out a rehabilitation treatment as the last, and only option that he clings to for reach the World Cup.
Scaloni has already spoken with him and told him that what matters most to him is his health and that he is not going to risk any footballer in that regard. “In terms of players, Lo Celso can be replaced, but due to his characteristic of a left-handed midfielder, there is no other player who can take his place,” warned the coach, who added in TyC Sports that he already has “29 or 30 candidates for the list 26” end.
In addition, and comparing the case of the former Rosario Central with that of the former Institute, from Córdoba, Paulo Dybala, the Argentine coach indicated that he also remains “expectant” regarding the tear that the native of Laguna Larga also suffers in the femoral biceps, although in his case of the left leg.
The Roma midfielder is doing daily recovery work that requires about five hours and it has been more than three weeks since he was injured, but tomorrow will be a key day for his health ahead of the World Cup, since an MRI will be performed which will determine exactly how the torn muscle scar is and based on that, how far it is from Qatar or closer to it.
And the same thing happens at this time with Armani, since considering that in “hierarchical” order today Emiliano Martínez and Gerónimo Rulli occupy the first two places among the three that Scaloni announced that he will take to the World Cup, the reappearance in a good level of Juan Musso after the fracture of the right maxilla, with an operation included, his place as third goalkeeper is under discussion.
“I am anxious to find out the final list for the World Cup, although I am also reassured that I have done my best to be able to be there. Personally, I feel part of this process because in fact I was part of the team that won the Copa América in Brazil,” he told him. Musso told TyC Sports today about his World Cup expectations.
And then he marked a particularity about the characteristics that a national team goalkeeper must complete and although he took Emiliano Martínez as an example comparatively, he made them his own and revealed certain differences with those that characterize Armani, especially in the game with the feet.
“I think today’s goalkeeper needs to be ready for everything, like playing with his feet and cutting plays or crosses. Emiliano is a goalkeeper with a good physique, but I also feel fit,” he said. Scaloni likes goalkeepers with the conditions listed by Musso, with the added bonus that they also face strikers who play in the best European leagues on a daily basis.
“I’m wearing a mask for now to protect the operated area, but when I got injured the first thing I thought about was the World Cup and that’s why the first thing I asked the Atalanta doctors was how many games I was going to miss. That’s why Coming back so quickly was a joy, and feeling good as I feel, much more so. But I’m going to continue using that facial protection until the World Cup just in case,” Musso warned, as expectant as he was confident.
To him, to Lo Celso and to Dybala, to the three in particular, Scaloni works during these hours from Ezeiza to lower their anxiety. And Armani too.
