Montiel shakes off knock and trains fully, but Molina to start v Austria | OneFootball

Despite having shown improvement in the last few hours, Gonzalo Montiel will not be part of Argentina’s starting lineup this Monday in Dallas against Austria in the second matchday of the 2026 World Cup. The right-back is dealing with tightness in his right hamstring, which prevented him from training normally last Thursday, so his place in the starting eleven will be taken by Nahuel Molina.

During this morning’s closed-door training session, “Cachete” sparked some hope by working on the field in boots alongside the rest of the group. Although this progress will allow him to be on the bench and even play a few minutes if the match requires it, the coaching staff led by Lionel Scaloni chose not to risk him from the start and confirmed Molina as the starter, after he had already come on in the second half of the opener against Algeria.

This new physical issue is unrelated to the injury the River Plate defender was carrying when he joined Argentina’s training camp in Kansas. That previous problem, suffered during the Torneo Apertura semifinals against Rosario Central — and which ruled him out of the final against Belgrano — had been located in the hamstring of the other leg.

This semester has been physically challenging for the former Sevilla player, who is part of the group of ten footballers who were unable to complete the pre-World Cup preparation optimally alongside their teammates. Because of those setbacks, he had to train separately for almost a week, missed the friendly against Honduras, and was only able to see action in the second half of the final warm-up match against Iceland.

With Molina lacking playing time, having not logged any minutes in either of the two warm-up matches, the full-back developed at Núñez — remembered for scoring the decisive penalty in the 2022 Qatar final — had won the battle to start in the World Cup opener against Algeria. However, this muscle issue now forces him to give up his place for the second matchday of Group J.

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