Rui Borges confirms three key absences for Sporting v Porto: out | OneFootball

Rui Borges confirmed the absence of Maxi Araújo, Ousmane Diomande, and Hidemasa Morita in the classic match against Porto. This trio of Sporting players will not be available for next Saturday's classic, as they are injured. In fact, the Ivory Coast coach left the central defender out of his country's squad, so that the player can recover in the best way.

“Our injured players are all out of this game,” said the coach of the Alvalade Club at the press conference previewing the match against Francesco Farioli's pupils. Before the end of the conference, the native of Mirandela still had time to talk about the possible absences of the visiting team.

“I believe that Samu will play instead of De Jong. Porto has many solutions, a lot of quality, they have great players capable of responding,” revealed Rui Borges, considering that the solutions for Porto's forward line are both of great value, but betting on the Spaniard's starting position.

“De Jong brings certain characteristics, Samu brings others, but I look more at the collective. But Porto is not weakened, they gave a great response in the last game, but I think Samu will play,” concluded Rui Borges about the injured players from both teams for the first classic of the 2025/26 season.

The Sporting – Porto is scheduled for next Saturday, at 8:30 pm, at the José Alvalade Stadium. The game is part of the fourth round of the Liga Portugal Betclic and puts two of the current three leaders of the competition, besides Moreirense, face to face. The match will be refereed by João Gonçalves.

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