Perhaps the announcement from European leagues saying they wouldn’t let players travel to join certain national teams, due to Covid-19 and quarantine issues, didn’t have the expected impact.
South American federations continue to be quite confident they will have the footballers available for the international break next week, and are betting on FIFA to back them for the World Cup Qualifiers rounds.
One of the countries who seem calm about the situation is Uruguay, where Manchester United star Edinson Cavani is expected to be next week.
Speaking to El Observador today, they claimed they’ve already sorted out flight tickets for players to join the national team, keeping every plan they already had for the matches against Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.
“Yesterday we spoke with Tabárez and tomorrow we’re going to draw up the list with all the players. The tickets are already issued. I spoke with Cavani and I believe that the solution will come.”
In an Instagram post this week, the Manchester United striker showed his confusion over the Premier League’s decision not to let the players travel for the international games.
Should Cavani travel to South America for the September matches, and then face a 10 day hotel quarantine, he’d miss Premier League games against Newcastle United and West Ham, likely have to skip the EFL Cup tie against the Hammers, and, depending on how fit he is after his isolation, could also sit out against Aston Villa on September 25th.
Uruguay then have two matches in October, with the last on the 12th against Brazil. If there were to be no change in the situation, he wouldn’t be available against Leicester City on the 16th and would likely miss the Liverpool match on the 24th.
Whilst the Champions League fixtures haven’t been finalised yet, Matchday 1 is September 14-15th, which would be missed, and the same would be the case with Matchday 3, which is October 19-20th.
It doesn’t end there, with Uruguay also having internationals in November, January, February and March.
