Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) director Juninho has confirmed Brazil will not release Real Madrid players before the end of the international break.
South American teams are in the 2022 World Cup qualifying action over the coming week.
FIFA has inserted an extra international window into this season’s calendar to make up for time lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brazil has already qualified for this year’s World Cup in Qatar and sits top of the CONMEBOL standings on 35 points.
They face Ecuador on Thursday and Paraguay on Tuesday.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, has a Copa del Rey quarter-final against Athletic Bilbao on Feb. 3.
Four Real Madrid players —— Casemiro, Eder Militao, Rodrygo, and Vinicius Junior —— have been called up for Brazil.
However, Juninho insisted that even if the players do not feature in each of Brazil’s games, they will remain with the national team until Feb. 2 when the international window ends.
This means there is little chance of Los Blancos having the quartet available for the trip to San Mames.
“We are not going to release the players,” Juninho said.
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“The players have to be with us until the end of the FIFA period, on Feb. 2. Depending on how they play the first match [we will] discuss whether or not they play the second.
“They will be with us until the end. We are not willing to release them. We cannot set a precedent. We have had requests from other clubs.
“We have a few days with the players. We must take advantage of this year now that the preparation for the World Cup has begun.”(dpa/NAN)
