Bernardo Silva has been ruled out of Thursday’s World Cup qualifier between Portugal and Ireland at a sold out Aviva stadium.
Silva picked up a muscle injury after scoring for Manchester City at Old Trafford last Sunday, in a 2-0 win over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United.
“We believe that Bernardo will be available for the game against Serbia [on Sunday],” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos at a shambolic briefing in Lisbon that the Irish media were unable to hear due to technical difficulties.
“He arrived tired, complaining, as he has played many games and couldn’t go to training, but he’s recovering well and we hope and we believe he’ll be able to play here with Serbia.”
Portugal are one point behind the Serbs who top Group A with the countries facing each other on Sunday in Lisbon while Ireland finishes their campaign in Luxembourg.
“He won’t even travel with us, no, it makes sense because we do not consider him to be at 100 per cent,” Santos continued ahead of the chartered flight to Dublin. “Not having the best conditions for the treatment [in Ireland] he will stay here.”
On the lessons from Cristiano Ronaldo’s 96th minute winner against Ireland in September and with six players - João Cancelo, Rúben Dias, José Fonte, João Palhinha, Renato Sanches and Diogo Jota - one yellow card away from suspension, Santos said: “The most important game is against Ireland. We’ll put in a strong team.
“It will be a tough game, they proved in Portugal that they are a competitive team. They are backed by the public, they never leave the game, they never give in.
“They fight a lot and they know how to play, they showed it here. They try to try to play with an organised attack.
“After 15, 20 minutes we could have been winning 2-0 [in Portugal]. We had a penalty and a shot hit the post. The important thing to take away from that game is the period between shooting at the post and the end of the first half. We allowed a more broken game, attack and counterattack, which appeals more to Ireland and did not help our team. In the second half the team reacted well, and no longer allowed Ireland that ability to create so many problems.”
