Coutinho to miss the Qatar World Cup

Philippe Coutinho will not play in the World Cup in Qatar. The Brazilian, in the match against Manchester United played by Aston Villa, was unable to play due to a right quadriceps injury that will keep him out for around six weeks. This means that Tite will not be able to call him up to the Brazilian national team and Unai Emery will not be able to use him until the end of the major international tournament.

"Coutinho has a quadriceps injury. I don't know how long he will be out for, but he couldn't play and he won't play until after the break. It's a muscle injury," said the coach after his side's 3-1 win over the Red Devils. He was one of the candidates to be key in this new period for the Villains with the former Villarreal coach at the helm.

The former Barcelona player's absence means yet another star absentee from the WC, which also includes Diogo Jota of Portugal, Pedro Neto of Portugal, N'Golo Kante of France, Yuya Nakayama of Japan, Paul Pogba of France, Love Kalinic of Croatia, Ben Chilwell of England, Timo Werner of Germany, Sam Vines of the United States and Maxime Crepeau of Canada.

It is curious how it has been highlighted, in recent weeks, that the league championships are taking a toll on the physicality of the most recurrent players in the starting line-ups of their coaches. This has caused several of them to be very cautious. For example, Karim Benzema, who has taken a step back from the leading role in order to be at 100 per cent in Qatar.