Portugal name injured Liga-based duo

Portugal have called up Fabio Coentrao and Joao Pereira for their play-off with Sweden, despite the pair of them being injured.

The Real Madrid and Valencia full-backs have been named in the squad by Coach Paulo Bento for the World Cup play-off later this month.

Coentrao was forced to retire from Saturday’s league clash at Rayo Vallecano after twisting his ankle. The defender missed Tuesday’s Champions League game against Juventus and has been omitted from the squad for tomorrow’s visit from Real Sociedad.

Joao Pereira meanwhile sprained his left thigh muscle during the mid-week league meeting with Almeria and is expected to be out of action for 15 days, meaning that he could return for the second leg in Solna on 19 November.

Beto (Sevilla), Eduardo (Braga) and Rui Patrício (Sporting Clube de Portugal); João Pereira and Ricardo Costa (Valencia), Pepe and Fábio Coentrão (Real Madrid), Bruno Alves (Fenerbahçe), Neto (Zenit), André Almeida (Benfica) and Antunes (Málaga); Miguel Veloso (Dinamo Kyiv), Rúben Micael (Braga), João Moutinho (Monaco), Raul Meireles (Fenerbahçe), William Carvalho (Sporting Clube de Portugal) and Josué (Porto); Bruma (Galatasaray), Éder (Braga) Nani (Manchester United), Varela (Porto), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Hugo Almeida (Besiktas) and Hélder Postiga (Valencia).

Tags Coentrao Joao Pereira Portugal
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