Leonardo Balerdi, the 27-year-old Olympique de Marseille defender, tore the soleus muscle in his right leg during Argentina's final training session before a friendly against Honduras and was removed from the country's 26-man list for the 2026 World Cup after medical tests concluded he could not arrive at the tournament in proper condition.
Searches for Leo Balerdi spiked because the injury came days before Argentina's opening match on June 16 against Algeria and because the defender had been counted on as an important alternative in central defence for what would have been his first World Cup; Balerdi has made 11 appearances for the national team and had started three South American qualifiers against Peru, Chile and Ecuador.
Team doctors and Lionel Scaloni's coaching staff reviewed scans and assessments that showed the soleus tear would prevent Balerdi from preparing and competing at the level Argentina required, prompting the decision to remove him from the squad rather than hold him on as an uncertain option. The tests, officials said, indicated a recovery window that would not leave him fit to help the team when it needed him to be.
A three-week recovery estimate complicates the picture: medical projections suggested Balerdi could have recovered only in time to be available—barely—for Argentina's third group-stage match against Jordan, but the coaching staff chose to rule him out of the tournament entirely. That choice forces a judgement about roster certainty versus late hope; Scaloni and his staff prioritized a fully fit 26-man group over keeping a player who might arrive merely to fill a spot late in the schedule.
For Balerdi, who had also recently missed time because of another muscle injury, the decision ends immediate World Cup hopes. For Scaloni the outcome is practical and immediate: a vacancy on the final roster must be filled from a pre-established list of 55 players. The pool contains defenders and other players who were under consideration, but the name who replaces Balerdi remains undetermined and will carry the weight of late preparation and integration into the squad.
Argentina's managers now confront the concrete next step they set for themselves after removing Balerdi: select and summon a replacement from the 55-player prelist, integrate that player into the team before June 16, and adjust defensive plans that had included Balerdi as a possible stand-in for central roles. The most consequential open question is which defender Scaloni will choose—an answer that will reshape bench options and match-day decisions for Argentina's early World Cup fixtures.
