Barcelona’s Luis Suarez is happy to be back available for Uruguay after his biting ban and believes scandal-hit FIFA deserves their strife.
Suarez was suspended for nine competitive internationals after biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini and has spoken to Mundo Deportivo as he prepares to return, ironically in Brazil, the site of the incident at World Cup 2014.
“I always say things happen for a reason. Now I’m back with Uruguay in the country where it happened, Brazil. It’s fate,” he said.
“I’ve got peace of mind and emotion. I’m calm because the team has shown they don’t rely on me, they’re a strong group with a great captain in Diego Godin.
“And excited because returning to the group will be exciting, plus all the country supported me when I was punished and now I hope to live up to their support.
“I was wrong, but I was treated worse than if I had doped. But everyone gets what they deserve and you only have to see FIFA now, that says it all.”
Suarez added that when he next scores for Uruguay, he will think of his family, as usual, but also Walter Ferreira, the late physio to whom Suarez was close.
“Walter helped me in my worst moments, when I thought my knee injury would keep me out the World Cup,” he recalled.
“He gave me his strength and his professional wisdom, and I made it. He was already ill then. So when I scored against England I dedicated the goal to him.
“When I next score for Uruguay, the goal will be for him. I still don’t like the idea he won’t be there and it’ll be hard not to see him.”
Suarez will be up against Neymar’s Brazil and he poked fun at his club colleague, ahead of the serious business of a World Cup qualifier.
“He’s a kid who is always wanting to have fun and to joke, which is good for the group,” he noted.
“But there’ll be no jokes when we play against each other, eh?”
