Santos crossing his fingers as Portugal’s injuries mount

PORTUGAL coach Fernando Santos said he hoped central defender Danilo Pereira would not be sidelined with injury for long and there were also fitness concerns about midfielder Otavio ahead of tonight’s World Cup match against Uruguay.

Pereira, who plays his club football at Paris Saint-Germain, suffered three broken ribs in training on Saturday, ruling him out of the rematch of the 2018 round of 16 clash which Uruguay won 2-1.

“As far as I know, he is improving and we expect to have him back on the pitch very soon,” Santos, who has been in charge of the national team since 2014 and led them to victory at Euro 2016, said yesterday.

“But if we don’t, we have three other centre-halves who can replace him.

“We don’t need to make a drama of it.”

Portuguese media reported that Pereira would miss the group stage and his involvement would be in doubt if Portugal, led by captain Cristiano Ronaldo, make it to the knockout rounds.

Asked about 39-year-old defender Pepe, who was on the bench when Portugal beat Ghana 3-2 in their opener last Thursday, Santos said he was “a monster” and would be in the team tonight.

Portugal are top of Group H after beating Ghana.

Decisions about the availability of Otavio, who started the match against Ghana, and reserve leftback Nuno Mendes, who is also an injury concern, was taken after a training session later yesterday, Santos said.

Portugal face Uruguay at the Lusail Stadium just north of Doha tonight.

Santos said the South Americans remained a very strong team with the ability to counterattack at pace, even if strikers Edinson Cavani, who scored both Uruguay’s goals against the Portuguese in 2018, and Luis Suarez were older.

“We will have to be very careful because they can press their opponents really intensely, force them into errors and then hit them hard,” Santos said.

Meanwhile, Uruguay want an improved performance against Portugal and would love to repeat their win over the Europeans at the 2018 tournament, coach Diego Alonso said yesterday.

“About what happened four years ago, it’s a different match, we have different players, it will be a completely different match,” Alonso said.

Uruguay knocked Portugal out of the World Cup in Russia with a 2-1 win, but Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur said football had moved on since the 2018 match.

“It will be a different game. It’s been four years since that game and football has evolved.

“Now we play with more intensity and players are in a better physical condition,” Bentancur said.

“They (Portugal) play very well with the ball, they play the spaces, they beat the back line of the defence.

“But we’ve been working on that and we will try to use our own weapons so that we cannot be defeated.”