Barcelona star player left out of the Spain squad to face Portugal amid Araujo and Kounde injury

Barcelona star player left out of the Spain squad to face Portugal amid Araujo and Kounde injury.

According to MARCA, Luis Enrique, the manager of Spain, has decided not to include Barcelona defender Eric Garcia in the 23-man roster for La Roja’s UEFA Nations League match against Portugal later tonight.

The victor of tonight’s match between the two Iberian rivals, Spain and Portugal, will go to the Nations League 2022/23 finals.

Additionally, manager Enrique has chosen to leave out two of the 25 all-stars he has selected for the current international break, just as he did for the match against Switzerland last week.

The former Barcelona manager left Dani Carvajal and Diego Llorente out of the match against Switzerland.

This time, he has fired a right-back and a center-back, respectively, Cesar Azpilicueta of Chelsea and Eric Garcia of Barcelona. And it’s not because any of the guys are hurt.

Garcia has been a consistent member of the Spanish national team under Enrique and has previously thanked Lucho for having faith in him.

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Enrique described the match as a World Cup quarterfinal at his news conference on Monday, so it is intriguing that he decided to bench the defense for such a crucial match.

Barcelona will see it as a positive development, though, considering they have already lost two important defenders to injuries over the break.

Jules Kounde, who injured his thigh playing for France against Austria last Thursday, has been ruled out for a month.

Ronald Araujo also sustained a much more serious thigh injury the next day, necessitating surgery and keeping him out for almost three months.

Garcia’s absence from the Portugal match would therefore be somewhat of a relief for Barça as it eliminates the possibility of an injury. Even though, La Roja will be represented by Pedri, Gavi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and Ferran Torres for the Catalans.