Argentina Coach Edgardo Bauza says Mauro Icardi is “calm” over his exclusion, which is because “he’s not a player who helps keep the ball”.
The Inter striker has so far been given just one cap for his country, and has been repeatedly left out of the squad.
Some have suggested the reason is that Lionel Messi is friends with Maxi Lopez, the ex-husband of Icardi’s wife, Wanda.
Argentina Coach Edgardo Bauza says Mauro Icardi is “calm” over his exclusion, which is because “he’s not a player who helps keep the ball”.
The Inter striker has so far been given just one cap for his country, and has been repeatedly left out of the squad.
Some have suggested the reason is that Lionel Messi is friends with Maxi Lopez, the ex-husband of Icardi’s wife, Wanda.
“I’ve told him verbatim: ‘be calm, if something happens to [Gonzalo] Higuain or [Lucas] Pratto I’ll call you’,” Bauza explained to La Nacion.
“He’s happy, calm, no problems. He said to me: ‘I’m calm’. And I repeated that he could be called up at any time, and that no-one in the national team has a problem with him.
“In my opinion he’s a good finisher, not a player who you can involve in the collective play of the team.
“Of the three, Pratto is the best in this aspect, it’s just he doesn’t score like Higuain. Icardi is very dangerous in the final third, he has a lot of confidence right now.
“He’s not a player who helps a lot in holding the ball.
“Will I call him for the Brazil game on June 9? Maybe, but I don’t know. I told the Federation that I wanted to go to Brazil for eight or nine days to work with the players, but even though it’s a FIFA date the European clubs won’t give me their players.
“Also, given it’s just after the end of the season the players want to go on holiday, they plan on going to the beach with their wives.
“We’re playing Brazil, we can’t change too much… if we get beaten 4-0 we’ll get slaughtered.
“I saw [Brazil Coach] Tite in Europe and I said: ‘do you want to play this match?’.
“He said no, so I told him: ‘good, let’s just play a 0-0!’. He killed himself laughing.”