Defenders Jonatan Maidana (River Plate) and Gino Peruzzi (Boca Juniors) were added on Tuesday by Argentina coach Gerardo "Tata" Martino to the Albiceleste callup for CONMEBOL qualifying against Brazil and Colombia on Nov. 12 and 17.
Maidana and Peruzzi replace the injured Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City) and Ezequiel Garay (Zenit), who were removed from the squad list on Monday.
#Eliminatorias Ante las bajas por lesión, Martino convocó a J. Maidana y a G. Peruzzi: https://t.co/DtWcLrlxUN pic.twitter.com/JT4MuIrzsw
- Selección Argentina (@Argentina) November 3, 2015
This will be the first recall for both Maidana and Peruzzi under Martino's direction.
Maidana last played in a friendly in 2011 when Sergio Batista was coaching while Peruzzi saw action under Alejandro Sabella.
Garay has a right hamstring injury while Zabaleta is being treated for a left medial ligament injury. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini this week estimated that Zabaleta will be fit to return after the international break.
The World Cup 2014 runners-up, missing Lionel Messi due to injury and forced to cope with the early exit of Sergio Aguero also to injury, began their journey to Russia with a shock 2-0 defeat to Ecuador in Buenos Aires last month.
Messi hasn't played since suffering a knee injury on Sept. 26 and is fighting to be fit for Barcelona's game against Real Madrid on Nov. 21. On Monday sources said his recovery was behind schedule. But Barcelona coach Luis Enrique on Tuesday denied there was any change in the situation.
"Leo's recovery is going normally for his injury," he said. "The doctors could explain. Every recovery is different, for each player, but there is no news -- neither positive nor negative. All is normal for a player who is injured."
Argentina will begin training for the 2018 qualifiers on Monday in Ezeiza.
