Son Heung-Min to lead South Korea in FIFA World Cup 2022 despite injury concerns

Son Heung-Min. Pic/AFP

South Korea announced its 26-member squad led by football star Son Heung-Min for the FIFA World Cup 2022 on Saturday.

Despite suffering a fractured eye socket, while playing for Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League earlier this month, Son Heung-Min was selected to South Korea's 26-man roster for this month's FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

After Son proclaimed himself fit to play for the Koreans, who will be making their 10th consecutive appearance at the World Cup finals, head coach Paulo Bento added Son to his team.

"We are in contact with him, with the Tottenham medical department, but about the exact time, the exact day he can train with the team we don't have that information yet. So we need to wait, we need to analyse his situation day by day. We have time to decide and the most important is he recovers as well as possible, he feels comfortable and then we will take the final decision," said Bento as quoted by ESPN.

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The 30-year-old underwent surgery to fix the injury and has stated that, if necessary, he will wear a protective mask while playing in Qatar.

"Even competing with a high-level performance from our side we are going to feel many difficulties because on the other side are very good and strong teams," added Bento.

Lee Kang-In, a playmaker for Mallorca, was not chosen by Bento as a backup for Son in the event that the Premier League's co-leading scorer from the previous season was injured.

Having been ousted by Uruguay in the Round of 16 in 2010, South Korea will enter the World Cup hoping to advance to the knockout stages for the first time since then.

Beginning their World Cup run against Uruguay in Group H on November 24, Bento's team will then play Ghana on November 28 and Portugal on December 2.

South Korea squad:

Goalkeepers: Kim Seung-Gyu, Jo Hyeon-Woo, Song Bum-Keun

Defenders: Kim Min-Jae, Kim Young-Gwon, Kwon Kyung-Won, Cho Yu-Min, Kim Moon-Hwan, Yoon Jong-Gyu, Kim Tae-Hwan, Kim Jin-Su, Hong Chul

Midfielders: Jung Woo-Young, Son Jun-Ho, Paik Seung-Ho, Hwang In-Beom, Lee Jae-Sung, Kwon Chang-Hoon, Jeong Woo-Yeong, Lee Kang-In, Son Heung-Min, Hwang Hee-Chan, Na Sang-Ho, Song Min-Kyu.

Forwards: Hwang Ui-Jo, and Cho Gue-Sung.

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