As already covered by us, Philippe Coutinho’s transfer saga is having some impact on the Brazilian national team.
There are two reasons why most of the attention has been on the Liverpool midfielder. Both because it’s unknown if he can play the next games, and also because the media continues expecting the move to Barcelona to happen at any time.
National team coordinator Edu Gaspar, who played in the Premier League for Arsenal for three and a half seasons, has spoken to ESPN Brasil (via UOL) this Wednesday, and talked about the situation.
“We called up Coutinho more than 15 days ago and he was in a different situation than he is today. After he arrived, a new complexity within the negotiation itself appeared, so we have to take care with a lot of criteria so that we do not get involved in a negotiation situation. We’ve made an evaluation with our doctor, and if he understands that he’s fit, we free him.”
“After the doctor freed him, he made an evaluation and a transition to see if he was fit for normal training. It’s a very important thing, we think of the athlete for him to feel comfortable as well. We cared about him, about the national team, so that we can conduct this in a calm way.”
After missing weeks of training with Liverpool, the player is now working in Brazil to get in shape and be ready to play if needed. The national team is playing against Ecuador on Thursday night, and by the time of kick off, the English transfer window will be over.
In the past couple of days, however, the Brazilian press didn’t have any updates on how the negotiations between Liverpool and Barcelona have been going.
