Injured Arsenal star named on shortlist for March international call-up | OneFootball

Gabriel Martinelli features on Brazil’s official shortlist for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers, raising the possibility he could be called up for international duty this month.

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The Brazilian football association officially confirmed their 52-player shortlist for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina on Friday, with Arsenal players Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli both included.

Brazil boss Dorival Junior will announce his final 23-player squad next week, and Gabriel will certainly expect to be a part of it, but it’s interesting to see that Martinelli is also still in the manager’s thinking at this late stage.

As it stands, Martinelli is sidelined with a hamstring injury, but it seems Dorival Junior isn’t ruling out his inclusion over the international break just yet.

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Though this is just an early shortlist, and more than half of the players on it won’t be included in the final squad, it’s worth noting that Tottenham Hotspur’s Richarlison isn’t on the list.

Like Martinelli, Richarlison is a Brazil international expected to return from injury for his club this month. Yet only one of the two players made Dorival Junior’s shortlist.

It remains to be seen whether that’s just a sign of how highly Dorival Junior rates Martinelli or whether he expects him to be fit sooner.

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For the time being, the expectation is that Martinelli and Bukayo Saka will be fit for Arsenal in April, but Mikel Arteta has repeatedly said that Martinelli is a bit ahead of Saka.

It doesn’t seem impossible the Brazilian will play for the Gunners this month, which is perhaps why Brazil are also keeping their options open.