Gallardo sidelines Benzema from Al Ittihad AFC Champions League squad

Things are not improving for Karim Benzema at Al Ittihad after the Frenchman has been excluded by coach Marcelo Gallardo for the important first leg of the round of 16 of the Asian Champions League. Benzema will not travel to Uzbekistan to face Navbahor Namangan (on Thursday) due a restriction on foreign players with only five non-Asian players permitted per match-day squad.

Benzema will stay in Jeddah after the Argentine coach opted for the Egyptian center back Ahmed Hegazy, midfielders N’Golo Kanté and Fabinho and strikers Romarinho and Abderrazak Hamdallah. The Lyon born player failed to return to Jeddah on time and consequently missed out on the mid-season training camp that the club conducted in Dubai.

Due to his delayed return, Benzema was forced to train alone at the club’s facilities in the Saudi city and as things stand the Frenchman will continue with the set-up, although he appears to still be embroiled in confrontation with the former River Plate coach.

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Although he is now back training with the with the rest of his teammates, Benzema is still deemed to be not 100% fit and Gallardo has preferred to bet on other foreign players during the tricky trip to Uzbekistan. Navbahor have only lost one game in the group stage in the competition (0-2 against Al Hilal) and has secured a creditable draw (1-1) in Riyadh.