Argentina will be without nine senior players for their World Cup qualifier against Venezuela on Friday.

Emiliano Martinez, Cristian Romero, Giovani Lo Celso and Emiliano Buendia have all been handed two-match suspensions and will play no part in this month's qualifiers as they were deemed to have breached COVID-19 protocols back in September's clash against Brazil.

Paulo Dybala, Lisandro Martinez, Marcos Acuna and Alejandro Gomez will also miss out this month due to injury, while Lautaro Martinez is unavailable after testing positive for coronavirus.

Lionel Scaloni is, however, able to welcome back seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi, who missed last month's qualifiers as he decided to build up his fitness with Paris Saint-Germain following a bout of COVID-19.

The 34-year-old and club teammate Angel Di Maria are expected to start and they could be joined in attack by either Angel Correa, Joaquin Correa, Julian Alvarez or uncapped Lucas Boye.

La Albiceleste quartet Nicolas Otamendi, Nicolas Tagliafico, Leandro Paredes and Rodrigo De Paul are all available to play on Friday after serving one-match suspensions last time out.

Otamendi is set to partner either Lucas Martinez Quarta or German Pezzella at centre-back, shielding Franco Armani between the sticks, while Tagliafico is expected to start at left-back, replacing the injured Acuna.

Paredes and De Paul could join Guido Rodriguez in a three-man midfield, though Brighton & Hove Albion's Alexis Mac Allister – who missed last month's qualifiers due to COVID-19 – is also an option to start.

Scaloni has surprisingly included seven uncapped teenagers in his 31-man squad – Manchester United's Alejandro Garncho, as well as Franco Carboni, Valentin Carboni, Luka Romero, Matias Soule, Tiago Geralnik and Nicolas Paz, will all be hoping to receive their first senior cap for Argentina, who have already qualified for the World Cup.

Argentina possible starting lineup: Armani; Molina, Otamendi, Martinez Quarta, Tagliafico; De Paul, Rodriguez, Paredes; Messi, J. Correa, Di Maria

Written by
Oliver Thomas