Cristian Romero won’t play for Argentina this week after having an appeal against his suspension turned down, according to reports.
FIFA have rejected Argentina’s appeal and is now expected to return back to London (image:Getty Images)
The Tottenham defender was called up by Argentina despite having to serve a two-match ban, which had been appealed against by his country.
Argentina had clearly hoped the suspension would be cut down to one game and Romero would be able to play against Ecuador on Wednesday.
However, the London Evening Standard claims FIFA have rejected Argentina’s appeal, so Romero’s trip around the world was a complete waste of time.
Back in September, the Premier League quartet including Romero travelled to Sao Paolo to face Brazil, allegedly in breach of the country’s Covid regulations at the time, which barred arrivals from the UK who were not Brazilian citizens or permanent residents.
Spurs were frustrated by the AFA’s decision to select Romero this month, particularly as Argentina had already qualified for the Qatar World Cup, but the club was powerless to prevent him from traveling.
However, FIFA confirmed on Monday that Romero remains suspended, along with team-mates Emiliano Buendia and Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa, and Giovani Lo Celso, who is on loan from Spurs at Villarreal. That trio also joined up with the squad last week and are now in the same predicament.
Romero is now expected to return back to London and resume training with Spurs on Tuesday, in what could be a boost for the club ahead of facing Newcastle this coming weekend.
With Romero avoiding potential injury and fatigue, his inability to play for Argentina is obviously good news for Tottenham.
At the same time, he could have spent the last few days on the training ground with Antonio Conte and the remaining Spurs players.