Brazil boss Tite has explained why he has opted to leave Richarlison out of his squad for his side’s upcoming November fixtures.
The Everton forward has been left out of the Selecao’s 23-man pool for the fixtures with Colombia and Argentina next month.
Brazil face Colombia in Sao Paulo on November 12 before taking on Argentina at the San Juan del Bicentenario Stadium four days later.
Richarlison made a goalscoring return as a substitute in Everton's defeat against Watford after missing over a month of action with a knee injury.
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And it appears the knee injury sustained following a controversial challenge by Burnley’s James Tarkowski is the reason for his exclusion.
“He’s one of a number of athletes who are important and who, at the moment, you make a choice for those games,” Tite told Globo Esporte via Sport Witness.
“They are instantaneous, there’s no longer time like a Copa America, where you have time to prepare.”
Brazil Physical coach Fabio Mahseredjian then added on Richarlison’s omission: “He had a knee injury on 13/09/21, he was away from playing for 40 days.
“He returned to training with the group on 10/18, his minutes is still small. This is also a factor that makes us believe that he needs a little more playing time for him to improve his physical condition.”
Speaking on Friday afternoon, Rafa Benitez confirmed Richarlison is in contention to start Monday’s Premier League clash at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
He said: "He's been getting better, we will see how much he can improve. In terms of his fitness he will not be 100% but he's getting better."
Before the Spaniard continued on the Brazilian: "If you think about the top scorers last year, he's one of them. He has the ability to beat players and score goals. He was good for us at the beginning of the season, he can be a big miss."
