Thierry Henry has stated that ‘nobody cares’ about the players’ welfare after Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min and Barcelona’s Pablo Torre were injured in the Champions League ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Premier League legend initially thought it was Gavi, who has been capped by Spain, that suffered an injury during Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Viktoria Plzen.
But he later realised that it was the uncapped Torre, although, his point about the World Cup being held in the winter and even a ‘small injury’, as of this moment, ending someone’s World Cup hopes didn’t change, as he told CBS Sports on Paramount+ (01/11/22 at 10:45 pm) & (02/11/22).
The final Premier League game before players head to the Middle East will be played by Fulham and Manchester United on November 13, before Qatar and Ecuador kick-off proceedings seven days later.
Never mind picking up a knock, by the time players meet up with their respective nations and head to Qatar, the tournament will be kicking off – it’s a very small window from the last domestic game to the World Cup opener.
So, even being out of action for 10 days could derail your tournament, with Son injuring his cheekbone during Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Marseille in the Champions League on Tuesday night and now requiring surgery.
Belgium assistant coach Henry mentioned the injury suffered by the South Korean international and how he is hoping he’ll be okay to play on the world’s biggest footballing stage, before ranting at the packed schedule.
“The World Cup is coming, I feel sorry for those guys,” said Henry. “I don’t want to put things in people’s minds, but there was nothing at stake in this game (Barcelona v Viktoria Plzen), in all fairness.
“We have seen Son, the World Cup is around – I hope it’s nothing. I hope Son is going to be okay. Playing a World Cup is very important and the World Cup is around the corner.
“I hope that Gavi (mistaken for Pablo Torre) is going to be okay. I hope Son is going to be okay. This is what I am talking about, the World Cup around and all those games, it’s difficult for those guys to recover and be okay, so hopefully, they will be able to recover and come through.
Henry then corrected himself about wrongfully identifying Gavi as the one being injured when it was Pablo Torre: “Yes, it was Pablo Torre. We didn’t watch the Barca-Plzen game, but it looked like Gavi. Hopefully, he is okay. But Gavi will make the World Cup, if Luis Enrique picks him.
“One of the most important things is the time you don’t have to actually recover from a small injury, or for me as an assistant coach, we, Roberto Martinez and the staff, you don’t have the time to have the team and work on the World Cup. Nobody cares about the players. Nobody cares about the staff. They just care about having the World Cup, whatever it is, let’s move on. Whether I go, you go, or whoever goes, it will happen. People never ask questions to the players, they ask questions when it’s already made and done.”
HOPE FOR SON
Well, Son won’t be playing Tottenham’s mouthwatering home tie against Liverpool on Sunday, but he will be hoping to feature against Leeds next weekend.
It could see the 30-year-old don a mask, unless the status is a lot worse after surgery.
England have seen a number of their star players drop likes flies during these past few weeks, Reece James looks like he is going to miss out, Kalvin Phillips has only played 13 minutes of football, Kyle Walker is still on the sidelines and Ben Chilwell suffered a serious-looking hamstring injury in the Champions League last night.
Added to that, France duo Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante won’t be available to help their nation defend their crown, nor will Liverpool forward Diogo Jota feature for Portugal.
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