Juan Foyth was determined not to miss his Argentina debut against Mexico on November 17th.
So much so that six stitches in a facial wound, after a collision with a teammate in training, weren’t going to stop him.
The defender is clearly tougher than he looks and told the Argentine media: “I didn’t want to have to drop out. The moment it happened, I asked the doctor if I could be there. I wanted to be there. Thankfully, I was able to. They said to not worry, it was just a small cut. If it opened up, they’d sew me back up. And if happened again, they would sew me up again.”
Thankfully, he didn’t need a pitch-side repair kit, but that doesn’t mean the issue has gone.
The AFA, Argentina football association, reports that Foyth trained separately in the country’s final training session before leaving the national base to travel to their second friendly of the current break, again against Mexico.
Although it’s not confirmed, the likeliest reason is the facial injury rather than a fresh problem for Mauricio Pochettino to worry about. The medical team won’t want to risk another blow to the player’s wound ahead of him returning to Tottenham.
Argentina have already named their starting line-up for the match, and Erik Lamela is in but Foyth has been stood down. Again, that’s probably a precaution given how well the defender played in the first match.
