Spain’s Sheila García to miss World Cup: why has she been ruled out?

Spain are only a day into their final preparations for next month’s Women’s World Cup, but one player has already had to drop out of the tournament. Atlético Madrid’s Sheila García has left La Roja’s squad after failing to get over a knee injury in time for the trip to Australia and New Zealand.

“The defender arrived at [the Spain squad’s camp in] Benidorm with a partial patellar tendon tear that she has been unable to recover from, leading her to say goodbye to the team,” the Spanish Football Federation said in a statement.

García was set to start for Spain at right-back

García’s departure means that Spain head coach Jorge Vilda will have to do without a player who had become indispensable to the side in recent months. The full-back, who began her career as a winger, had established herself on Spain’s right flank in the absence of Ona Batlle, who was among the 15 players who announced their decision to walk away from the international set-up late last year.

With Batlle returning to the Spain fold this month, however, Vilda has proven cover at right-back.

Missing World Cup “difficult to take” - García

“Since [the knee injury] happened to me, I’ve had some very difficult days,” an emotional García said on Tuesday. “I just have to put this behind me and focus on my knee, which right now is the most important thing. With the time it’s going to take to get over the injury, I wasn’t going to make it back in time [for the World Cup]. Right now, it’s really difficult to take.”

The 26-year-old added: “I have complete faith in my team-mates; they’re going to have a great tournament, I’m sure of it. Things are going to go really well.”

Spain’s preliminary squad down to 29 players

As things stand, it is not known whether Vilda will bring a replacement for García into his initial 30-player squad for the World Cup. After the Spaniards’ warm-up fixture against Panama on 29 June, this preliminary group of players will be cut down to a final squad of 23.

Drawn in Group C with Costa Rica, Japan and Zambia, Spain kick off their World Cup campaign against the Costa Ricans on 21 July.