Lionel Messi‘s farewell window with the Argentina national team will come with a couple of notable absences, as head coach Lionel Scaloni confirmed two players will miss the upcoming friendlies due to injury just days before the squad reconvenes for the current FIFA window.
The players ruled out are Thiago Almada and Juan Foyth, both left off the roster for the three matches that will close with Messi’s emotional send-off against Benin.
Almada suffered a muscle injury after being substituted early in River Plate’s match at the Argentine league, with initial assessments pointing to several weeks on the sidelines.
Foyth’s situation traces back further, as the Villarreal defender has been managing muscle discomfort since late August that never fully cleared up. Rather than risk him, the coaching staff opted to leave him out of all three friendlies.
With both players sidelined, Argentina will host Bolivia on September 30 at Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Córdoba, before returning to the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires to face Burkina Faso on October 3 and Benin on October 6, the date set for Messi’s farewell appearance in the Albiceleste shirt.
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Argentina won’t call up replacements for Almada and Foyth
Following the injuries to Almada and Foyth, Argentina could bring in two other players as replacements, but it doesn’t appear to need them. That’s because head coach Lionel Scaloni had already added six players from the Argentine league and three from abroad to the original list, pushing the squad to 37 names.
Almada was one of the six local additions, joining Nicolás Otamendi, Santiago Beltrán, Tobías Andrada, Leonel Flores, and Tomás Palacios, while Equi Fernández, Santiago Simón, and Valentín Gómez were the players added from abroad.
With such a deep squad already in place, Scaloni can comfortably absorb the losses of Almada and Foyth without disrupting his plans for the farewell window. Otamendi’s case remains the one exception worth noting, as the defender was called up despite having already retired from the national team, brought back solely for his own send-off alongside Messi on October 6 against Benin.
