Raúl Jiménez last made an appearance in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 0-0 draw against AFC Bournemouth towards the end of August.
An injury has forced him to miss fixtures for both the Premier League side and Mexico. This had raised doubts over the striker’s involvement with El Tri at the 2022 World Cup.
Mexico manager Gerardo Martino has included the Wolves star in his final squad for the FIFA tournament in Qatar.
He came off the bench in Mexico’s 2-1 friendly defeat to Sweden on Wednesday and it was the 31-year-old’s first appearance since August. Jiménez’s performance in Girona has not pleased a certain section of Mexico supporters.
This includes TV Azteca journalist Christian Martinoli, who is not happy with the Wolves frontman’s call-up for the World Cup.
He is of the belief Martino’s decision to select Julen Lopetegui’s man is because of his reputation in the national team.
“Jiménez was respected, from my point of view, because of the hierarchy. Jiménez, basically, at the World Cup, he should not be there,” Martinoli said, as quoted by Debate.mx.
“They have ‘brushed’ Santiago [Gimenez] who is playing, currently he is a little better, he is active, and Jiménez was respected in his hierarchy, because in the end he was always the striker that Martino liked the most.”
The journalist further stated: “Jiménez hasn’t played for a long time, it’s normal for him to be like this, so today Jimenez is the third centre forward of the team, under these conditions he can’t play.”
It will soon be found out whether Martino made the right decision to pick Jiménez for the World Cup.
