VeLA Watch: Carlos Vela misses two games with injury, but called up by Mexico

Real Sociedad played their second game in the Europa League group stage on Thursday, losing 3-1 to Zenit Saint Petersburg in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Of local note, Real Sociedad forward Carlos Vela, on loan from 2018 MLS expansion team Los Angeles Football Club, did not play in the loss, nor did he play in La Real’s last La Liga match, on Sunday against Valencia, which also ended in a loss for the Basque side.

It seems Vela suffered a knee injury and has been listed as “day-to-day” by Real Sociedad. And that in turn led to speculation that Vela would not be called up by Mexico for the final games in the hexagonal, on Oct. 6 against Trinidad & Tobago and Oct. 10 at Honduras. Mexico’s place in the World Cup next year in Russia is clinched, as well.

But Juan Carlos Osorio did indeed call up Vela for the qualifiers:

The payoff here is that Vela’s injury does not appear to be serious, thank goodness, and perhaps he’ll be able to play Sunday for Real Sociedad before flying back to North America, or if that’s too early, getting a chance to play some minutes in the qualifiers. He has yet to score this season for club or country, so getting some time to find a rhythm would be valuable before joining LAFC in preseason.

We’ll keep track of Vela’s exploits in the meantime.

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