Lionel Scaloni, the manager of Argentina, gave an update on Lisandro Martinez, a defender for Manchester United who had to pull out of international action.
Martinez showed up at the Argentina camp for their World Cup qualifying games against Paraguay and Peru.
The 26-year-old and several other Premier League stars, including Emiliano Martinez, Christian Romero, Enzo Fernandez, and Facundo Buonanotte, were held up for a long time at an airport in Brazil.
When he finally got there, though, Martinez was quickly let go by Argentina, with original reports saying he had a hip problem.
Scaloni admitted that Martinez’s injury came as a surprise and said that the defender had been having back pain.
He is thought to have hurt himself when he took a hit during Man United’s 3-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday.
Scaloni told the press, “We didn’t expect the Lisandro case.”
“We saw that he had been hit in the back, but he didn’t seem to be hurt, just in pain.”
“When he got here, the pain got a little worse. He was tested and found not to be fit to be here.”
Martinez wasn’t with Argentina when they lost their most recent World Cup qualifier on Thursday.
Argentina lost to Paraguay 2-1. Antonio Sanabria and Omar Alderete scored goals for the home team after Lautaro Martinez scored the first goal for the world winners.
Even though they lost, Scaloni’s team is still in first place in South America’s World Cup qualifying results with 22 points from 11 games.
The champs will try to get back on track when they play Peru at home on Tuesday.
Martinez will try to get fully fit before Man United’s next game, which is next Sunday against Ipswich.
The game will be the first one with new Man United coach Ruben Amorim in charge.
Amorim was seen talking to a number of players in Manchester on Monday after coming from Portugal. These players are either recovering from injuries or weren’t called up by their countries earlier this week
At Carrington, Amorim was seen talking to people like Luke Shaw, Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount, Leny Yoro, and Toby Collyer.
The 39-year-old was then shown around Old Trafford on Thursday. It was his first official visit to the ground as Coach of Man United.