Is Mexico striker Raúl Jiménez at risk of missing the World Cup?

The coach of the Mexico national team, Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, confirmed that Raúl Jiménez will not play during the September international break against Peru (24 September) and Colombia (27 September). Martino also said that the 31-year-old was going to return to Wolves on Sunday to continue his recovery from a groin injury in hopes he reaches full fitness sooner rather than later.

Jiménez is having a hard time walking

“I would like to think that he’s not at serious risk of missing the World Cup and we are hopeful he can recover in time and even play a game with Wolves. I have a lot of expectations and when I visited him 20 or 30 days ago, I never thought we would be in this situation,” Martino said.

“I didn’t think his injury was going to be this serious and I don’t think it is that serious, but it needs to be monitored closely. So yeah, with the World Cup right around the corner, I have to be monitoring his recovery and we are working alongside with Wolverhampton so he can recover as soon as possible.”

Jiménez has missed Wolves’ last three fixtures in the Premier League and has only played three out of eight games so far this campaign, two as a starter and one coming off from the bench. There is no timeline on his recovery.

Since Martino took over the Mexico national team job, he has made it clear that Jiménez is his first-choice striker and he will wait for him until the last minute. The player is also very optimistic about recovering in time to be able to feature for Mexico in the World Cup in November.

“I feel happy to be here and even though I am not playing, I will continue my recovery here. Sometimes it is good to change scenery and it is good for me to be with the national team and all my teammates. It is different and it motivates me because we all have one objective. I do feel pain from my injury, but I hope to recover in the upcoming weeks,” added Jiménez.