South Korea’s coach Paulo Bento said Thursday that the injured Son Heung-min would of course be selected in his World Cup squad but could not say whether his captain would be fit for the country’s first match in Qatar.
The Tottenham forward had successful surgery to repair an eye socket fracture suffered in the 2-1 Champions League win over Marseille nine days ago.
Son wrote on his Instagram page Wednesday that playing in the World Cup was his childhood dream and that he “can’t wait to represent our beautiful country”.
Bento dismissed concerns about Son missing the World Cup, with South Korea’s first Group H game against Uruguay on November 24 just two weeks away.
But he said Son should be given enough time to recover as well as possible.
Bento said it was understandable that Son, who also played in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, would be eager to get back in action as soon as possible.
