Philippe Coutinho is the next player who will most likely miss the World Cup in Qatar. The Aston Villa midfielder suffered an upper leg injury during training, his new trainer Unai Emery confirmed last Sunday. The World Cup starts on November 20 and Brazil will play against Serbia four days later.
In his first game as coach of Aston Villa, the brand new coach Emery treated Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United to a 3-1 defeat. Coutinho was, however, not on the scoresheet at that time either. The thirty-year-old Brazilian played thirteen games for this season the Villans, in which he only completed the ninety minutes once. He has yet to score any goals or assists.
According to Brazilian media, the injury-prone Coutinho will be sidelined for at least six weeks. So it remains to be seen whether he will be included in his World Cup selection by Brazilian national coach Tite. This calendar year the Divine Canaries so far eight caps in all competitions. Coutinho played in five of them. He was not called up for the exhibition games against Tunisia (5-1 win) and Ghana (3-0 win) last September.
So far, the attacking midfielder has played 69 international matches in which he scored 21 goals and provided 11 assists. If he misses the World Cup in Qatar, he will join a row of unlucky ones with, among others, Georginio Wijnaldum, Timo Werner, Paul Pogba, Diogo Jota, N’Golo Kanté and Ben Chilwell. Should Coutinho not make it to the World Cup, Flamengo’s Everton Ribeiro will likely take his place.
Related
More sports news
