Alexis Sánchez has been declared fit by Chile for Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier against Uruguay, after Arsène Wenger warned that playing the forward could be a “suicidal decision” which would leave the 27-year-old on the injury list at Arsenal for months.
Sánchez suffered what Wenger said was a hamstring injury in training with Chile and missed their game against Colombia last week. Arsenal’s manager expressed concern that Sánchez would be pressed into action and suffer a serious setback and will watch anxiously how his key forward copes against Uruguay.
Chile’s coach, Juan Antonio Pizzi, said Sánchez was ready to return, along with Manchester City’s goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and the Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal.
“Sánchez was not ready for the game in Colombia, but we knew the injury was a small one and we could have him for this match. The three of them [Sánchez, Vidal and Bravo] are available to me for tomorrow,” Pizzi told a press conference.
He added of Sánchez: “It’s not that he hasn’t trained, he’s trained every day, even when we were in Colombia he did a different kind of work. Yesterday he took part in full training.”
Pizzi also dismissed any suggestion the injured players’ clubs had sought to influence his selection decisions.
“At no time have we received pressure from any club. My stance is that I will never use a player who is not fit or capable of playing,” he said in quotes reported by the South American media.
“All of the clubs can remain calm, we are very respectful of our players. The health of our players is paramount, we will never force any player who has not got the medical all-clear.”
Arsenal play at Manchester United on Saturday in a lunchtime kick-off. Whether Wenger would look to start Sánchez there given the swift turnaround from flying back from Chile is unclear. He made clear last Thursday, though, his fears over the player’s fitness after Sánchez suffered what Chile described as a “low-grade muscle injury”.
“I got a text last night [to say] that he has a hamstring injury,” Wenger told beIN Sports. “The team from Chile has travelled without him and they kept him to try and get him fit to play Uruguay for the second game on Tuesday night.
“I believe that with a hamstring injury we have to get access for our medical staff to the MRI scan to see what grade it is, how bad it is and make absolutely sure they don’t make any suicidal decision that could harm his future for two or three months.
“That is absolutely important. It’s a grey area between the national team and the club team and of course they look at their own results which I can understand but we have to preserve the health of Alexis Sánchez.
“He always wants to play and that’s where it is a more sensitive case because he’s always ready to play even when injured.”