Martínez has two absentees for Portugal, still overlooks Sporting star | OneFootball

The Portuguese Football Federation issued a statement last Sunday, November 9th, announcing two players released by Roberto Martínez due to injury: Pedro Gonçalves and Pedro Neto. However, the national coach did not call up any players to replace them.

Regarding the Sporting player, the FPF reports that he "sustained an injury in the match Sporting played on Saturday against Santa Clara and was deemed unfit to join the national team". It is now known that Pote has a micro-tear and is also expected to miss some games for the Lions.

One of the main controversies in this case is the fact that Martínez is left with only 24 players available for the two World Cup '26 qualifying matches, instead of bringing in names like Geovany Quenda to develop alongside the rest of the national team - as the coach himself mentioned the young player during the call-up.

Portugal has a match scheduled against the Republic of Ireland next Thursday, November 13th, at 19:45, in Dublin. On Sunday, November 16th, at 14:00, Portugal concludes the World Cup 2026 qualifying phase by hosting Armenia at Estádio do Dragão.

Portugal is in first place in Group F, with 10 points from four games (three wins and one draw). Hungary is second, with five points (one win and two draws), the Republic of Ireland is third, with four points (one win and one draw), and Armenia is last, with three points (one win).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.