The Barça coach Jonatan Giráldez explained, in the press conference after the victory against Atlético de Madrid (2-0), that the call-up of Alexia Putellas, injured since last November, with the Spanish National Team had been “a surprise” .
“The information I had on Levante day is that she would not be called up,” the coach emphasized when asked about the call-up of midfielder Alexia Putellas with the Spanish National Team for the Nations League. “The next day he showed up (the call), so I guess there was some conversation,” he explained.
The double Ballon d'Or winner, who had surgery at the end of December for discomfort in her left knee that she had been experiencing since November, entered Montse Tomé's list, even with her availability to play in the air. “I'm not the one who has to answer if she has to play or not,” added the Vigo player, insisting that “the information she had from the club was that she would not be called up.”
Giráldez acknowledged that he was concerned about the presence of Putellas, already in the final stretch of his recovery, in a “different dynamic” with different training loads, but stressed that “it does not depend on me or the club.” “We send a report on the player's status and everything that has to do with the player and the call, you have to ask it there,” he concluded.
