Injury-hit Saudi captain ruled out of FIFA World Cup ahead of Mexico match

Injury-hit Saudi captain ruled out of FIFA World Cup ahead of Mexico match

DOHA – Saudi Arabia’s Coach Herve Renard has permitted team captain Salman Al Faraj to leave the Green Falcons  camp as he will no longer be able to play the remainder of the FIFA World Cup 2022 due to an injury.

Al Fajar sustained serious injury to his leg bone in his team’s opening match against Argentina. The game was historic as the Saudi team beat two-time winners Argentina in Lusail in a major upset.

“Herve Renard has given team captain Salman Al Faraj his permission to officially leave the Green Falcons  camp following the medical team s assessment that he will no longer be fit to play for the remainder of the FIFA World Cup

Qatar 2022 campaign,” the Saudi National Team said in an official statement on Twitter.

National team head coach permits Salman Al Faraj to leave the training camp to recover from his injury pic.twitter.com/7yG1ProTIl

— Saudi National Team (SaudiNT_EN) November 27, 2022

Earlier, the Saudi coach had stressed that the absence of Al-Faraj from the squad in the Poland match was tantamount to the absence of Neymar from Brazil.

The Saudi Football Team lost to its Polish counterpart 0-2 in a match at the Education City Stadium in Doha, within the second round of Group 3 of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The Green Falcons will face off Mexico in the third and final round of the group stage.

Saudi defender Yasser Al-Shahrani will also not be available for the upcoming game as he was sent to Riyadh for an emergency surgery after suffering injury in the Argentina match.

On the points table, Saudi Arabia has three points as equal to Argentina, behind Poland, who leads Group C with 4 points. Mexico stands fourth with one point on the chart.