Buenos Aires – Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has included Atlético Madrid’s Thiago Almada in his squad for upcoming friendlies against Venezuela and Puerto Rico, despite the player currently being unfit to compete for his club, according to Atlético manager Diego Simeone.
Almada, recovering from a muscle injury sustained during a previous international break with Argentina, was surprisingly named in Scaloni’s roster for the October 10th and 13th matches in the United States. Though, Simeone confirmed on Saturday that the 22-year-old is not yet match-ready for Atlético.
“He is training well. the truth is he was injured with the Argentine National Team, I think he is already recovering quite well, yesterday he did his first training, today he made a part of the training and we consider that he is not yet to compete,” Simeone stated at a press conference.
Simeone indicated Almada will miss Atlético’s La Liga match against Celta de Vigo on Sunday,and anticipates the player will be in better condition for their game against osasuna in two weeks.
“We will continue taking care of it, waiting for it to recover as quickly as possible in the time we have ahead and against Osasuna I imagine that it will be very good,” added Simeone.
Almada suffered the injury on September 9th during the international break and has subsequently missed six Atlético matches: against Villarreal, Liverpool, Mallorca, Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid, Eintracht, and will also be absent for this Sunday’s game against Celta in Balaidos.
