Uruguay cancel Man Utd’s Cavani call-up

Edinson Cavani

Edinson Cavani will remain with Manchester United over the international break after his call-up to the Uruguay squad was cancelled.

Premier League clubs had unanimously decided not to release players for World Cup qualifying and friendly matches in red-list countries.

Cavani was set to miss United games as Fifa extended the international windows by two days in South America.

He would also have had to quarantine for 10 days on his return to the UK.

Instead of joining up with his country for three World Cup qualifiers against Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, Cavani will stay in the UK.

The Uruguayan Football Association said in a statement it had “decided to cancel the call for footballer Edinson Cavani”.

The situation with South American players has led to Spain’s La Liga request to the Spanish football federation for two games scheduled for 11 September, Villarreal-Alves and Sevilla-Barcelona, to be postponed and for the kick-off times of the other fixtures in the matchweek to be modified.

Tottenham pair Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero are set to travel home to Argentina – a country on the red list – meaning they will miss three Spurs games.

Argentina have World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia – four countries all on the red list that require isolation in a government hotel for 10 days after returning to the UK.

Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo has appealed for help from football and political authorities saying: “We cannot stop it but we try and find the best way, so when they return we can get them sooner.”

Aston Villa have also said their two Argentina internationals, goalkeeper Emi Martinez and midfielder Emi Buendia, will travel to South America for the first two qualifiers, but will miss the third against Bolivia. This means they will only be unavailable for one club game, against Chelsea on 11 September.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino confirmed last week that he had written to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and “appealed for the necessary support, in particular, so players are not deprived of the opportunity of representing their countries in qualifying matches for the Fifa World Cup”.

La Liga lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the release of players for the South American World Cup qualifiers.

The league argued against Fifa’s decision to extend the September and October windows in South America to catch up on qualifiers postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It says a postponement of league fixtures will “mitigate the irreparable damage caused by this decision that threatens the sporting integrity of our competition.”

Source: BBC