Brazil’s Gabriel Magalhães pulls out of squad for England and Spain games
The Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Magalhães will miss Brazil’s friendlies against England on Saturday and Spain next week because of injury, with Juventus’s Bremer named as his replacement.
Brazil’s coach, Dorival Júnior, gave no details on the injury when announcing the news, but Arsenal will be desperate for Gabriel to be fit for their Premier League trip to Manchester City on 31 March. Dorival said: “Today we had another casualty. Unfortunately, Gabriel Magalhães is uncalled. In his place, we’re calling up Bremer, from Juventus.”
The Arsenal defender joins Gabriel Martinelli, Casemiro, Ederson, Alisson and Marquinhos on Brazil’s injury list. Brazil play England at Wembley on Saturday, followed by a visit to the Santiago Bernabéu on 26 March to face Spain. the forward suffered an ankle injury, ending his world record run of 84 straight games for his country.
The 32-year-old Atlético Madrid player, France’s fourth-highest scorer with 44 goals in 127 appearances, is replaced by Lazio’s former Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi in the squad.
Lionel Messi is also out of Argentina’s friendlies, because of a hamstring injury. The 36-year-old missed Inter Miami’s Major League Soccer game at DC United on Saturday. “Lionel Messi will not be in the squad for the friendlies in the U.S. due to a minor right hamstring injury sustained in the Inter Miami game against Nashville,” the Argentinian FA said on its official X account.
Argentina face El Salvador on Friday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia before playing Costa Rica four days later at the Los Angeles Coliseum.