Players set Bielsa meeting, demand answers over Arrascaeta injury

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Coluna do Fla

·26 Juni 2026

Players set Bielsa meeting, demand answers over Arrascaeta injury

What happened between the Uruguay players and Marcelo Bielsa?

Uruguay has a decisive match this Friday (26) in the World Cup. That is because the clash with Spain is La Celeste’s last game in the group stage. With that in mind, 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 a great deal of dissatisfaction with the training load.

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 rejected.

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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 spell 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 Uruguayan Football Federation officials 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 clavicle.

Showing signs of improvement, Uruguay’s Medical Department began speeding up some recovery processes, which ended up causing an injury to Arrascaeta’s calf. After that happened, Flamengo even made a point of issuing a statement criticizing the attitude of the La 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 clash (26), 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, La Celeste will have to rely on other results to go through.

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 MATCH IN THE WORLD CUP?

The match between Uruguay and Spain will take place at 9:00 PM (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.