Gabriel Sotomayor, from Tigre, and Gustavo Velasco, player from San Antonio, the new ones summoned to the Green.
Sports 360 / La Paz
Gabriel Sotomayor, forward of The Strongest, and Gustavo Mendoza, winger and also left winger of GV San Antonio, were called up to the national team, the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) announced, after learning of the absence due to injury of attacker José Martines. , Always Ready footballer.
Martines was injured in the match that Always played against Bolívar on Wednesday, matchday 21 of the Clausura. He was replaced in the 45th minute by José Briceño. The initial diagnosis was a right knee sprain.
On Friday morning he underwent several tests that confirmed that it was a serious injury, which is why the footballer and also the doctors who accompanied him preferred not to make statements when they returned to the concentration hotel.
The national coach Óscar Villegas, a few minutes later, was in charge of anticipating, based on the information they gave him, that it was unlikely that Martines would recover for the matches with Ecuador and Paraguay.
“Unfortunately the outlook is not very encouraging, it is an injury that will require several days (for recovery). We are waiting until noon for the final report from the medical side and then we will surely give the correct information. If you cannot continue We are going to give the name of the new squad,” said Villegas in a brief contact with journalists.
He had also anticipated, when referring to the substitute, that “we are thinking of a winger, a player who is fast and preferably who plays at height”, conditions that “Pito” Sotomayor meets, who, despite adding few minutes in The Strongest When it’s time to enter, the face of the attack always changes, as happened on Wednesday in the match that Tigre won (3-2) against GV San José.
Sotomayor (Yacuiba, July 2, 1999) will join the concentration during the afternoon, according to what was reported.
a surprise
It was expected that, given the loss of Martines, the coach would replace him with a footballer; but he surprised by also calling Mendoza.
In the case of Mendoza (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, May 11, 2004), it is a winger or winger on the left, with very good marking and also with a lot of speed, conditions that did not go unnoticed by the coach and his team. collaborators.
The Santa Cruz soccer player will arrive in La Paz on Saturday, as his team, San Antonio, will face Wilstermann tonight (7:00 p.m.) for matchday 21 of the Clausura.
