Sporting exodus leaves Rui Borges virtually without a squad for 3 weeks | OneFootball

Rui Borges is preparing to face an unusual period at Sporting. Between the home match against Arouca on September 19 and the trip to Braga around October 9, the coach will have plenty of time to work, but with few first-team players at his disposal.

All things considered, of the 10 new faces who arrived at Sporting this season, only Kaique, Sergi Altimira and Pedro Lima are expected to remain available. Ibrahima Ba and Moncef Zekri will stay with the Performance Unit, while several of the other signings are expected to represent their respective national teams.

Silas Andersen has already been called up to Denmark’s under-21s, while Rodrigo Zalazar is expected to travel to Japan with Maxi Araújo. Nestory Irankunda will return to Australia and Jesse Derry, an England under-19 international, is also expected to be called up again.

The list does not end with the new signings. Geny Catamo has already been confirmed by Mozambique and Rui Silva, Gonçalo Inácio, Zeno Debast, Vagiannidis, Fotis Ioannidis, Luis Suárez and Flávio Gonçalves are also expected to join their respective national teams, with it only remaining to be clarified which age group the 'number 58' will play in.

The depletion also extends to Sporting’s B team. Rui Borges could use this period to take a closer look at more players from the side coached by Tiago Fernandes, but several of the standout names, such as Rafael Nel and Mauro Couto, are also expected to be called up to Portugal’s youth teams.

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