BarcelonaThe Uruguay national team debuts today in the World Cup in Qatar with a cheat match against South Korea (2 p.m., World Goal) in which Ronald Araujo will not play. The Barça centre-back has not yet recovered from the muscle avulsion that forced him to undergo surgery at the end of September after injuring himself, precisely, with the Xarrua team. But that doesn’t mean he traveled to the Middle East just to group. He has the idea of dressing in shorts to fulfill his dream of competing in a world championship with his country and Diego Alonso, his coach, and thestaff accompanying him are rowing in this direction.
“There will be trouble with Araujo”, they told ARA a few days ago from the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in relation to the situation of the central player. And the mess is already here, because the footballer is working to cut deadlines at the behest of the Uruguayan trainers and physios. Commanded by Professor Ortega, a famous worker in the shadow of Diego Simeone’s coaching staff at Atlético de Madrid, they look after the defender with the idea of having him play during the group stage of the championship. The presence in Qatar of two professionals from thestaff from Barça, the recoveries Yon Álvarez and Chechu Pérez, who are finding themselves with very little room to contribute their criteria, which is much more cautious. Araujo’s desire and the word of Uruguay’s professionals prevailed.
“Ronald is developing very well and his body will tell when he will be able to play”, affirmed Alonso in yesterday’s press conference, leaving the door open to a debut on the scoreboard on Monday against Portugal. That is, in four days. The third match is on Friday, December 2 against Ghana. This optimism collides head-on with the idea of the Barça professionals, who tried to get the Uruguayan Football Association to sign a commitment so that Araujo would travel to Qatar not to play a single minute, but to have fun with his teammates. They didn’t make it.
As a result of that refusal, Uruguay can now play Araujo without any written and signed impediment. But since the risk of relapsing does not disappear (he was out for three months and only two have passed), Barça is trying to get a higher body like FIFA to dissuade Alonso and his collaborators from incurring a risk to the health of a footballer who is called to mark an era at the Camp Nou. His absence, in fact, was decisive for the team to be eliminated from the Champions League.
Avoiding a new Umtiti case
In the last few hours, the medical, sports and legal departments of the Blaugrana club have joined forces to prevent Araujo from running too fast to reappear and get injured again. The dialogue with the player has not worked and neither has the pressure on the technicians, doctors and recoverers of the Uruguayan national team. Hence the threat has been relayed beyond the private sphere. All of this with the intention of avoiding repeating bad things like the one that is still dragging on with Samuel Umtiti, who keeps the millionaire contract he signed with Barça before seriously injuring his knee in order to force himself to play in the World Cup in Russia 4 years ago and subsequently not accepting that he had to have surgery to redo it.
For its part, the Uruguayan expedition has been surprised by the uproar that has been generated from Barcelona by Barça’s position. As reported Sports worldthe South American combine says that it is not forcing Araujo and recalls the existence of a defined guideline with the Blaugrana club itself, according to which Dr. Alberto Pan, of the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF), is granted the last word on the possible release of the footballer.
