Uruguay boss Oscar Tabarez confirmed earlier in the week that Liverpool striker Luis Suarez will be considered for a recall to the starting eleven when La Celeste face England in their do or die World Cup clash on Thursday, but, as expected, we now have it straight from the man himself.
“I have been training for a few days with the team and I am 100% ready, I now only need time on the pitch and to play the game” the 27-year old told Uruguayan media outlet Ovación Digital in the build-up to the match that sees both sides teetering on the brink of elimination. “There is not one player that is going to be the saviour. We all have to work together to carry on.”
The Uruguayans, despite a wealth of attacking options, looked flat in their opening match against Costa Rica which the unfancied Central American side won with an empathic 3-1 scoreline. The same pretty much goes for England; although they were the better — and certainly the more entertaining — side for large swathes of the match, the Italians downed them 2-1 to make life uncomfortable for the Three Lions.
Although Kopites around the world will be holding their breath every time Suarez races in for a ball or goes down under a challenge, the striker confirmed that his club have complete faith in the Uruguayan medical staff and have at no point requested that he not be played. “There was never a moment when Liverpool said to me ‘don’t play’. The club have complete trust in Uruguay’s team” he said before dropping some ominous remarks about Roy Hodgson’s men. “I know all the English national-team players, both because they are team-mates or because they are rivals. They have defensive woes that we can take advantage of, but I won’t tell the press how we have to play.”
While it might be better for England to come up against Suarez when he’s struggling for fitness, there’s little doubt that their chances of reaching the knock-out stages just got a little slimmer. Fitness or no fitness, the man from Salto knows exactly where the net is…
