AUCKLAND (Reuters) – Spain’s back-to-back Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas is fit and ready to play in the team’s opening Women’s World Cup match against Costa Rica on Friday, coach Jorge Vilda said.
Putellas, who returned to action a few months ago after a long layoff from a knee ligament injury, raised concerns about her fitness when she cut training short earlier this week.
“All players are available to play tomorrow,” Vilda said via a translator at a media conference in Wellington on Thursday.
“In the case of Alexia, it’s optimising all the training sessions that we’ve had to have Alexia with us.
“We are very careful with everything that we do and we’re trying every possible means so that Alexia would be in condition to play tomorrow.”
The Barcelona midfielder is expected to be a key cog in Spain’s third World Cup campaign where they are favourites to top Group C ahead of Costa Rica, Zambia and Japan.
Spain were eliminated in the last 16 by eventual champions, the United States, in France in 2019, four years after failing to reach the knockout phase on their World Cup debut in 2015.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by …)
