Players meet Bielsa, demand answers over Arrascaeta injury in Uruguay

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Coluna do Fla

·26 June 2026

Players meet Bielsa, demand answers over Arrascaeta injury in Uruguay

What happened between the Uruguay players and Marcelo Bielsa?

Uruguay has a decisive match this Friday (26) at the World Cup. That is because the clash with Spain is the ‘Celeste’s’ last in the group stage. As a result, the Uruguayan players scheduled a meeting with Marcelo Bielsa to seek explanations from the coach.

According to information released by radio station ‘Espectador Deportes’, some of Uruguay’s squad leaders, such as Valverde and Rochet, confronted Bielsa and asked the coach to change the team’s style of play against Spain. In addition, the players also showed considerable dissatisfaction with the training workload.

Given this situation, the players made it clear that the excessive intensity in training caused some athletes to get injured during preparation for the World Cup, as was the case with Arrascaeta. Finally, the leaders asked for a tactical setup, which Bielsa refused.

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WHAT IS MARCELO BIELSA’S SITUATION IN URUGUAY?

Even before the World Cup began, Marcelo Bielsa was not going through a good moment in Uruguay. That is because the coach was heavily questioned for no longer calling up Luis Suárez. According to radio station ‘El Espectador’, one of the officials of the Uruguayan Football Federation became aware of the ‘imbroglio’ and stated that the coach will leave right after the tournament.

WHAT IS ARRASCAETA’S SITUATION IN URUGUAY?

Arrascaeta is one of the players who got injured during Uruguay’s preparation for the World Cup. At the start of training, Flamengo’s number 10 was recovering from surgery on his right collarbone.

Showing signs of improvement, Uruguay’s Medical Department began speeding up some recovery processes, which caused Arrascaeta to suffer a calf injury. After this happened, Flamengo even made a point of releasing a statement criticizing the attitude of the ‘Celeste’ professionals.

As a result, Arrascaeta has still not taken the field in Uruguay’s first two World Cup matches. Finally, for this Friday’s (26) clash, Bielsa has already made it clear that he will not use the midfielder.

WHAT IS URUGUAY’S SITUATION IN WORLD CUP GROUP H?

So far, Uruguay has two draws against Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. Therefore, Bielsa’s team needs to beat Spain later today to ‘book a place’ in the next stage of the World Cup. In the event of a draw, the Celeste will have to rely on a combination of results to advance.

SEE WORLD CUP GROUP H1st | Spain | 4 points2nd | Uruguay | 2 points | GD: 03rd | Cape Verde | 2 points | GD: 04th | Saudi Arabia | 1 point*GD = Goal difference.

WHAT TIME IS THE URUGUAY VS SPAIN WORLD CUP MATCH?

The match between Uruguay and Spain takes place at 9 p.m. (Brasília time) this Friday (26), in Akron. As usual, Coluna do Fla TV will cover the details of the clash on YouTube, as well as on its website and social media.

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