Raúl Jiménez last featured for Wolverhampton Wanderers towards the end of August and has been sidelined since then with an injury.
The striker’s chances of making it to the 2022 World Cup with Mexico have been a regular topic of discussion in his home country.
Last Friday, the Wolves star told ESPN that he will step aside if he’s not completely fit to represent El Tri in Qatar.
Mexico are scheduled to play two friendly matches in Girona before the start of the FIFA tournament. At the weekend, the Premier League side gave permission to the 31-year-old to travel to Spain to join the national team camp.
There have been suggestions that Gerardo Martino will include four strikers in his squad for the World Cup. The ex-Barcelona coach has dismissed this possibility during an interview with ESPN Mexico.
“We have players that can be in that spot, Chucky [Hirving Lozano] and Alexis [Vega] can play in that spot and four is an exaggeration,” Martino said.
“With the matches in Ecuador and Chile we brought Santiago Giménez to the ring and he had a very good start to the season with Cruz Azul, and now we are left with others. Four will not go. We have to resolve Raúl, because his situation is not easy and we have to see what happens.”
Martino took charge of the Mexico national team in January 2019 and the Wolves player has been his first-choice striker since then. The Argentine suggested that there has been no change in his stance on Jiménez.
“Since I started, I said that the centre forward was Raúl Jiménez, to the point that during the first year and a half, that when Javier Hernández came with us, he was a substitute,” he explained.
“Then came the nationalisation of Rogelio Funes Mori, the moment of Henry Martín and the appearance of Santiago Giménez.”
