Portsmouth loanee dealt brutal injury blow as he faces World Cup heartache
A major blow for the Pompey winger, after suffering a World Cup injury for Paraguay.
Gustavo Caballero’s World Cup dream is hanging by a thread.
The Pompey loanee has suffered an injury setback, which could rule him out of Paraguay’s second finals clash on Saturday against Turkey.
Adductor injury behind World Cup pain for Caballero
Defeat on Saturday for Caballero’s team would leave them on the brink of elimination from the competition, with one group stage fixture remaining.
The man who spent the second half of the season on loan at Fratton Park missed La Albirroja’s opener against USA on Saturday, as Gustavo Alfaro’s men fell to a 4-1 reverse in Los Angeles.
It has since emerged that an adductor problem kept the winger on the bench while the host nation cruised to victory, racing into a 3-0 half-time lead.
The issue arrived in a training session with the 24-year-old now away from the main group with fellow winger Ramon Sosa, as he attempts to get himself into a condition to be able to feature.
It’s a brutal blow after Caballero's surprise international breakthrough captured the imagination of supporters in his homeland.
Paraguayan TV station, Unicanal, reported the injury as a ‘muscular overload’ for Caballero, whose Pompey season was curtailed by a groin injury in April.
The hope is the Santos man may at least be fit enough to play a part on the bench again in the Turkey game.
The report said: 'What is starting to worry is the situation of Ramon Sosa and Gustavo Caballero because they were not involved in the training session that took place on Monday.
‘Gustavo Caballero is suffering from muscle overload in the adductor and Ramon Sosa is having discomfort in his ankle.
'What I understand is that he (Caballero) already travelled with that.
‘He had a groin problem which left him outside of the last commitments with Portsmouth, but supposedly it was in good condition.
‘In fact, he had been testing it and Alfaro thought he was a possibility for the commitment against the United States.
‘Now he has been testing it, but nevertheless ruled out for that clash due to this overload on the adductor.
‘I say if not starters, they hopefully are at least substitute for this one on the bench against Turkey, due to the issue of the counter-attack that Paraguay are going to have to use.’