To have played more than 170 games with a National Team is not something common. Those who achieve it become, based on pleasant and also painful experiences, born leaders. This is the case of Andrés Guardado, captain of Mexico, who will not be able to play with his national team for the last three matches of the Concacaf Qualifiers.
El Tri‘s qualification for Qatar 2022 will be at stake in the coming days in matches against the United States, Honduras and El Salvador. The first and last of these will take place at the Azteca Stadium and the match against the Catrachos will be away. Guardado will have to settle for supporting Mexico from a distance.
While the situation for Tata Martino’s squad is not high risk, it is a fact that there is still room for a tragedy to happen and Mexico’s streak of qualifying for seven consecutive FIFA World Cups to be cut short. That is why it would have been ideal for the team to count on all its elements, especially Andrés Guardado because of his status as captain and leader.
Andres Guardado: the reason for his absence of the Mexican National Team
Andres Guardado did not appear onthe Mexican National Team roster for the key matches of the CONCACAF Qualifiers towards Qatar 2022 due to an issue beyond the control of the player himself and coach Gerardo Tata Martino.
One of Guardado’s biggest enemies in his professional career was the one that kept him out of the matches against the United States, Honduras, and El Salvador, key for Mexico’s aspirations in the next World Cup: muscle injuries.
On March 6, in a Spanish League match between his team Real Betis and Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid, Guardado suffered a muscle injury in his left hamstring that caused him to leave the field just 10 minutes into the match and from which he has not yet healed.
Andrés Guardado, Real Betis. (David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)
Andrés Guardado’s absence adds to the ones of Rayados‘ forward and midfielders Rogelio Funes Mori and Rodolfo Pizarro, Cruz Azul’s defender, Julio Cesar Dominguez, and Tiuana’s goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco that Mexico deals with.
