The technical director of the Argentine soccer team,
Lionel Scaloni
, urgently summoned
Boca defender Nicolás Valentini
after it was confirmed that
Marcos Senesi
's injury , a grade two tear, will require five weeks of recovery.
In this way, Valentini will be part of the squad that will face the friendlies against El Salvador and Costa Rica at the end of March, in the United States.
Consequently, Boca will lose him for the scheduled match against Central Norte de Salta, for the 32nd final of the Argentine Cup on March 23.
And he will not be the only footballer who will not be able to be there for the local match, since Frank Fabra (Colombia), Norberto Briasco (Armenia) and Luis Advíncula (Peru), who were preselected for their national teams.
With the arrival of Valentini, Scaloni will have among the defenders Germán Pezzella (Real Betis), Nehuén Pérez (Udinese), Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica), Cristian Romero (Tottenham), Nicolás Tagliafico (Olympique de Lyon), Nahuel Molina (Atlético de Madrid) and Valentín Barco (Brighton).
#SelecciónMayor The footballer Nicolás #Valentini from @BocaJrsOficial joins the call, for the friendly date in March, replacing Marcos #Senesi.
pic.twitter.com/fwr7vEp8Pl
— 🇦🇷 Argentina National Team ⭐⭐⭐ (@Argentina) March 5, 2024
Argentina's first match will be against El Salvador - on March 22 - at Lincoln Financial Field, and four days later against Costa Rica, at United Airlines Field at the Memorial Coliseum.
The rest of those summoned:
In addition to the aforementioned defenders, Scaloni mentioned the
goalkeepers
Franco Armani, Walter Benítez and Emiliano Martínez.
The
midfielders
who will participate in the tour are Exequiel Palacios, Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes, Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernández and Giovani Lo Celso.
Meanwhile, the
forwards
available will be Alejandro Garnacho, Facundo Buonanotte, Valentín Carboni, Ángel Di María, Lionel Messi, Julián Álvarez, Lautaro Martínez and Paulo Dybala.
In the absences category there are several world champions who will not be in the first test of the year for the
Scaloneta
.
Five of them will be missing due to injuries: these are
Gonzalo Montiel
,
Lisandro Martínez
,
Juan Foyth
,
Marcos Acuña
and
Guido Rodríguez
.
Another of those absent is goalkeeper
Gerónimo Rulli,
who is not active in his club, the Dutch Ajax.
On the other hand, the non-calls of two men who are fully active are more striking:
Ángel Correa
, from Atlético de Madrid, and
Thiago Almada
, from Atlanta United, who was also key in the U-23 team that qualified for the Games. Paris Olympics.
Also missing from the world champions will be
Alejandro Gómez
, who is serving a two-year suspension after failing an anti-doping test that was carried out after a match when he was still playing for Spanish club Sevilla.