World Cup Woe: Spanish midfield star ruled out of Brazil trip
Published:
Bayern Munich’s Spanish midfield star Thiago Alcantara has been dealt a World Cup hammer blow after injury rules him out of a trip to Brazil.
The former Barcelona ace, whose impressive displays in Spain’s U21 side earned him a promotion to the World Cup squad earlier this week, has been sidelined after tearing a ligament in his knee and will now be forced to wait at least another four years before making his Copa Mundial bow.
However, while the injury is devastating news for the one-time Manchester United target, in reality Spain’s preparation for the tournament will not be too greatly affected.
The reigning champions go into the tournament as fourth favourites at 6/1 with just South American duo Brazil and Argentina and European rivals Germany available at shorter odds.
In fact there is such huge expectation on Spain to make it to the business end of the competition that they are priced as odds-on shots to at least reach the quarter-final stage at 7/10 with Ladbrokes.
Alcantara has been in impressive form for the German giants this term after following Pep Guardiola from the Nou Camp to the Allianz Arena and while a return of just two goals shows room for improvement his 20 appearances show how highly rated he is.
Alcantara had been hoping to help the Bavarians win the German Cup final in the coming days after regaining fitness from an earlier ligament injury.
However, this fresh blow has ruled him out of that showpiece match and the biggest stage of them all in the coming weeks.
Bayern are 10/11 favourites to beat Borussia Dortmund in the final and while Alcantara will miss out, his manager can at least look forward to having his man back fresh for the new season and free of any World Cup hangover.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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