Xherdan Shaqiri made his comeback for Switzerland on Saturday night as they lost 1-0 to Spain in the Nations League.
After an injury-plagued season, the Liverpool star hadn’t played for his country since first suffering such issues in last summer’s Nations League third-place play-off defeat to England.
The 29-year-old had been a doubt for Switzerland after initially returning a positive coronavirus test result when reporting for international duty, though later produced a second, negative result to remove him from self-isolation.
The Swiss FA confirmed Shaqiri would travel to Madrid as planned, but a decision had yet to be made regarding whether he would be available to face Spain.
But he was later cleared and started the game on the bench, having made just three appearances for Liverpool in 2020.
Introduced to the action as a 60th minute substitute, Shaqiri was unable to prevent Switzerland from suffering a 1-0 defeat after Mikel Oyarzabal’s early goal.
Switzerland are back in Nations League action on Tuesday night as they take on Germany, with the playmaker no doubt hopeful of making a starting return.
Shaqiri had been expected to leave Liverpool this summer, and has only made one appearance so far this season as a result after being withdrawn from squad selection due to his interest in his services before last Monday’s transfer deadline day.
But with no move forthcoming, he remains a Reds player and will be desperate to put his injury woes of the past year behind him as he looks to prove his worth to club and country with EURO 2020 on the horizon next summer.
