Edson Álvarez's injury raises red flags for the Tricolor

▲ The Mexican midfielder (left) left the match against Japan due to a muscle injury. Photo @miseleccionmx

Alberto Aceves

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, September 8, 2025, p. a11

The injury to midfielder Edson Álvarez, Mexico's captain for the 2026 World Cup, is generating the same signs of concern that have been exacerbated in previous lawsuits over excessive match play. From 1970 to the present, cruciate ligament tears, tibia and fibula fractures, ankle and meniscus problems have prevented players such as Alberto Onofre, Francisco Javier Abuelo Cruz, Claudio Suárez, Luis Montes, and Jesús Tecatito Corona, among others, from making the World Cup just months before their final call-up.

Álvarez requested a substitution 28 minutes into the match against Japan due to a muscle injury in his right thigh. “I'm not frustrated. In a way, I knew I made it to that World Cup (Russia 2018), but because of the injury, I couldn't be there. I was frustrated watching the games on TV,” recalls former footballer Luis Montes, referring to the fractured tibia and fibula in his right leg that kept him out of Brazil 2014 in a friendly against Ecuador. National team coach Javier Aguirre is still awaiting a report that could confirm the Turkish Fenerbahce signing's absence for the coming weeks.

“Yesterday, Edson felt worse than he does now. We'll see what the doctors say,” he said at the press conference after the draw with the Japanese side. Although there are just over nine months left until the start of the World Cup, the Tricolor team has a history of injuries that have hindered not only years of preparation and selection, but also the final build-up of the team for the Cup. “We're calm, trying to continue playing the way Vasco wants. The lesson this teaches us is that we have to be 100 percent against any opponent, because these are teams that will be in the tournament,” explains Toluca full-back Jesús Gallardo, referring to the players' physical condition.

In the 1970 edition, former midfielder Alberto Onofre, one of the greatest creative talents Mexican soccer has ever had, suffered a double injury—to his tibia and fibula—three days before the World Cup held in the country. That injury forced him to undergo surgery from which he was unable to recover, forcing him to retire. Francisco Javier Cruz, the architect of Mexico's qualification for the 1994 U.S. Cup, suffered a similar fate. In the decisive match against Canada, "El Abuelo" suffered a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee, which ruled him out of the World Cup.

Other players selected, such as Claudio Suárez (Korea-Japan 2002), Juan Carlos Medina (Brazil 2014), and Jesús Corona (Qatar 2022), were sidelined due to various injuries and physical ailments. Suárez's case is striking: during a training camp prior to the FIFA Cup, the defender suffered a fractured right fibula, from which he spent over two months recovering. When he was back in shape, Aguirre removed him from the final squad against all odds. "Competition, in that sense, is very important. Having Marcel (Ruiz), Carlos (Rodríguez), Orbelín (Pineda), and Edson (Álvarez), when he returns, will make us all grow," says América's defensive midfielder, Erick Sánchez.

The Mexican Football Federation announced yesterday the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Japan Football Federation to strengthen bilateral cooperation in sports, professional, and administrative development. It establishes a general framework that will allow for the planning, development, and implementation of specific activities for the exchange of knowledge and best practices between both parties.