The Saudi Arabia Football Federation have confirmed that, despite still waiting for conformation on their appeals on a doping case that is open against Fahad Al-Muwallad, he is out of the squad for the World Cup as a precautionary measure. Nawaf Al Abed will take his place, who, interestingly, is his teammate at Al Shabab.
Saudi Arabia have confirmed a change in their squad list for the World Cup due to a doping investigation. For a while, it has been a possibility that ex-Levante man Fahad Al-Muwallad would get punished, who is currently waiting the results of appeals in order to know what will be his future, so his national side have chosen to leave him behind before heading to Qatar, in case they end up not being able to use him in any event.
His country's federation announced it on social media, where they also announced that Al Shabab teammate Nawaf Al Abed will replace him. The situation from the get-go was very tense with the fans, who have already had a go at manager Herve Renard, for choosing a player who was going through something so controversial. The controversy has ended up coming back.
The main character this time is an ex-La Liga player, when he played at Levante, despite rarely getting game time. He played, over two separate games, 26 minutes. He featured in the closing stages away to Celta Vigo and Leganes. They ended up losing the first one, but won the second.
His only start at Levante was in a friendly against Ufa in February 2018. That same year, interestingly, he was called up against Barcelona which ended up in a crazy 5-4 win for Levante. The same happened in a game against Las Palmas, which ended in a 2-1 victory for the side from Valencia, who did not see Al-Muwallad to be a game-changing player.