Finally a smile for Lisandro Martínez in a year that did not start in the best way for him.
The world champion defender was summoned at the last minute by Lionel Scaloni and joins the Argentine National Team's tour in March in which he will play on Friday the 22nd against El Salvador at the Lincoln Financial Field stadium in Philadelphia and on Tuesday the 26th against Costa Rica at the Los Angeles Coliseum Stadium.
The 26-year-old defender could not add official minutes dressed in albiceleste throughout 2023 due to injuries.
And at the beginning of February he suffered a grade 2 sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee playing for Manchester United.
The English club announced in its official statement that recovery would take eight weeks, which will be completed at the end of this month.
#SelecciónMaor The @ManUtd_Es defender @LisandrMartinez joins Lionel Scaloni's call for the double date of friendlies for the United States.
pic.twitter.com/Pce8Rzqbho
— 🇦🇷 Argentina National Team ⭐⭐⭐ (@Argentina) March 12, 2024
Licha will arrive with just enough for these friendlies and, of course, will not have game shooting.
However, taking into account that he has not been called up for a long time due to cases of force majeure and that this is the last call-up before the Copa América, Scaloni and his coaching staff decided to add him, after agreement with United.
The defender had to come off 20 minutes into the second half of Manchester United's 3-0 victory over West Ham in the Premier League.
Vladimir Coufal fell on his right knee when they were fighting for a ball that went over the baseline.
Lisandro Martínez, from Manchester United, is once again called by Scaloni after several injuries.
Photo: AP
Martínez has been working hard on his rehabilitation to be able to be part of Argentina's tour in the United States.
The objective is to reach full strength and with a good run for the big mid-year event in which in North America, the Scaloneta will defend the title won in 2021 in Brazil.
Scaloni had several losses due to injury this time, mostly in defense.
He did not mention
Marcos Acuña
,
Gonzalo Montiel
and
Guido Rodríguez
for this reason .
And he had to disaffect
Marcos Senesi
due to a tear.
Instead he called
Nicolás Valentini
, from Boca.
Now Martínez is added.
The light blue and white delegation will meet again on American soil to begin training next Monday.
The coach will have four training sessions before the first friendly of the tour in which he will finish defining the list for the Copa América.
The rest of those summoned
In addition to Lisandro Martínez and Valentini, Scaloni cited the goalkeepers
Franco Armani
,
Walter Benítez
and
Emiliano Martínez
;
and the defenders
Germán Pezzella
,
Nehuén Pérez
,
Nicolás Otamendi
,
Cristian Romero
,
Nicolás Tagliafico
,
Nahuel Molina
and
Valentín Barco.
The midfielders will be
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
.