By MARK LORENZANA
Bad news for Mexican soccer fans: Mexican striker Jesús “Tecatito” Corona, who plays in La Liga in Spain, was hurt in a training session with his club Sevilla, suffering an injury to his ankle as well as a fibula fracture. Corona went under the knife on Thursday, Aug. 18, his soccer club reported, which means Tecatito will not be available for the World Cup in Qatar, which will be played in November of this year.
Through a statement, Sevilla reported that Tecatito was injured in “a no-contact action with another player.” Corona is expected to recover from the injury in four to five months. He has scored 10 goals in 71 appearances for Mexico since making his national team debut in 2014.
This is, no doubt, a big blow to the Mexican National Men’s Soccer Team, more fondly known as El Tri. Corona is a huge part of team manager Gerardo Martino’s offensive scheme, along with forward Raúl Jiménez and winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano.
This has not been the first time that an important player for El Tri was injured and failed to compete in the World Cup, as reported in a sports piece by Mexican daily newspaper El Universal. There have been several cases of Mexican soccer players who missed the World Cup due to injury.
Perhaps the most famous case of a tragic injury before a World Cup for Mexico was that of Alberto Onofre: The Guadalajara midfielder was injured just a few days before the start of the World Cup in Mexico in 1970. In another case, before the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, Claudio Suárez slipped on the field while training alone, and broke his knee. In 2014, months before the World Cup in Brazil, Luis Montes collided with Ecuadorian Segundo Castillo during a friendly match, and fractured his right ankle. In 2018, just a few months away from the start of the World Cup in Russia, Néstor Araujo injured his knee in a practice game against Croatia.
Meanwhile, Club América scored a historic win against their Liga MX rivals, fellow Mexico City-based Cruz Azul, 7-0, on the night of Saturday, Aug. 20. It was the most lopsided win so far in the so-called Clásico Joven, whenever these two most-titled and most-popular teams match up against each other. It was also Cruz Azul’s most lopsided beating in an official match, since the “Cementeros” 6-1 loss to Uruguay in the 2003 Copa Libertadores, and the 5-0 drubbing they experienced against Tampico Madero in the 1989 season of the Liga MX.