National team sweating over Real Madrid midfielder’s availability for key matches | OneFootball

Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde ended the 2024/25 La Liga season with an injury after the final game against Real Sociedad.

The club announced that the key midfielder was diagnosed with ‘lumbosciatica’, having played through pain for almost three months towards the final phase of the campaign.

Uruguay sweating over Valverde’s fitness

Now, according to EFE (h/t Mundo Deportivo), the Uruguayan national team is on edge and sweating over the availability of Valverde for their upcoming matches.

La Celeste are set to be involved in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Venezuela on 6 June and 11 June respectively.

At the moment, Valverde is holding onto hope of featuring for his national team, who are currently third in the CONMEBOL FIFA World Cup Qualifying table after 14 of 18 rounds.

Valverde dealing with a fitness problem. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Real Madrid are optimistic that Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa will release the player due to a bout of lumbosciatica.

It had been suggested that the 26-year-old Real Madrid mainstay, who has played in 59 of the team’s 62 games this season, would need a period of 10-15 days to recover from the issue.

The Merengues wish to have Valverde fully fit and firing in time for the FIFA Club World Cup set to begin in June and hope he will not be rushed back by the national team.

Currently undergoing rest and physiotherapy, the midfielder is following a recovery plan and his status for Uruguay’s games against Paraguay and Venezuela remains unclear and will be resolved in the coming hours.