Gareca rules out serious injury to Lapadula and starts training in Peru

Lima, 14 Mar Peru coach Ricardo Gareca ruled out Monday that Italian-Peruvian striker Gianluca Lapadula suffered an injury that jeopardizes his presence in the last two days of the South American qualifiers for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, which Blanquirroja will play with Uruguay and Paraguay. “Gianluca is fine. As far as I know, it is a slight problem,” Gareca told journalists at the end of Peru's first training session at the National Sports Village in Lima (Videna). Local media turned on all the alarms on Monday after it was reported that the striker was not summoned by the Benevento technical command for the match against Brescia in the framework of matchday 30 of the Italian Serie B. Although Lapadula was a starter in the previous match, against Crotone, apparently his absence from this call came after presenting a slight ankle sprain, according to local media. The Italian-Peruvian leads the 29-player call that Gareca made official on Friday, which did not include veteran strikers Jefferson Farfan and Paolo Guerrero, who have not yet recovered from the injuries they have been dragging since last year. Gareca clarified that he did not consider the two star figures in the Peruvian offensive for the match against Uruguay because he still “does not have medical authorization”, but he did not rule out that he could call them for the final qualifying match against Paraguay, in Lima. The coach also stated that “Peru will come out against Uruguay with the best it has”, since it depends on itself to seek the World Cup ranking, currently occupying fifth place, which gives the right to the repechage, with 21 points. He admitted, however, that the White Red will face “two very difficult matches”, but reiterated that he has “enough arguments to be fighting these last two dates.” Having qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Peru will determine whether to attend its second consecutive world championship with Gareca at the helm in the matches it will play on March 24 in Montevideo, against Uruguay, and on March 29 in Lima, against Paraguay. In pursuit of this goal, the national team began training on Monday with 11 players from local teams, who came to the Videna facilities to carry out gym work and physical tests.