Tottenham Hotspur correspondent Alasdair Gold has hit out at the decision made by Argentina to call Cristian Romero up to their latest squad.
Gold was speaking on his latest YouTube video following the announcement Romero would be linking up with his national side despite initially believing he would not be involved.
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Romero was not expected to be called up with the defender currently suspended for two games after he broke the quarantine rules last year in the suspended game against Brazil.
However, it is believed Argentina are hopeful of seeing Romero’s suspension halved to just one game in order for him to play in their second game of the break, against Ecuador.
And it was apparent Gold was left slightly concerned by the development which saw Romero fly to South America on Sunday night with Lionel Scaloni’s side already qualified for the World Cup:
(39:30) “The slightly annoying thing though, is that he’s been called up to the Argentina squad despite the fact that he currently cannot play in either of their World Cup qualifying matches. It’s because apparently, the Argentinian FA are confident that his ban will get halved so he’ll be able to play in one game.
“But the other kind of slightly weird part of it all is Argentina have already qualified for the World Cup. They don’t really need to you know, he came back from a big injury not too long ago. ”
TIF Thoughts on Romero’s call-up…
This news will come as a big concern to all at Spurs – Antonio Conte in particular – as the centre-back does not have a great track record of returning from international action in the same state he left.
Romero’s three-month hamstring injury was picked up whilst playing for Argentina and he also picked up an injury in the summer with Argentina before arriving at Spurs.
And adding to his injury issues, Romero was also forced out of action for Spurs after being forced to undergo a quarantine period on his return to the United Kingdom last year after playing for his nation.
We appreciate the 23-year-old clearly loves to play for his country, however, given there is no certainty he will play, we feel this is a big risk to take at such a crucial time in Tottenham’s season.
Since returning in February, Romero has been in exceptional form and with a spot in the top four on the line, we do feel Tottenham’s chances would take a huge blow if Romero was to pick up an injury.
In other news: Shocking: Tottenham should’ve been playing against 10 men as West Ham footage emerges – opinion