- Marcelo Bielsa will not consider midfielder Tiago Palacios for the Uruguay squad
- Palacios crashed a truck in a drunk-driving incident, injuring three people
- Would any Man United player get into the Arsenal team? Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off! podcast
Marcelo Bielsa will not consider Estudiantes player Tiago Palacios for Uruguay’s Copa America squad after he nearly killed a woman while drunk driving, according to reports.
Former Leeds boss Bielsa took charge of Uruguay last year, and has won six of first first 10 games.
However, midfielder Palacios will not be taking part in this summer’s Copa America tournament following a truck crash while celebrating beating Velez Sarsfield to win the Argentine Primera Division final with his club.
Palacios, 23, lost control of his truck on Monday after the drunken celebrations and hit a fuel pump at a Shell service station in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Retiro, leaving three people requiring medical assistance with minor injuries, as confirmed by LA NACION.
The Estudiantes midfielder took a breathalyzer test after the incident, and the result was positive with 1.84 grams of alcohol per litre of blood, about three times what is legally permitted.
Former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa will not consider a midfielder for his Uruguay squad
Estudiantes’ Tiago Palacios was drunk-driving a truck when he crashed into a petrol station
Palacios (right) was found to be three times the legal limit following a breathalyser test
Yahoo reports that he was investigated for the crime of causing minor negligent injuries, and was provisionally disqualified from driving vehicles for a year.
Palacios subsequently deleted his celebratory Instagram posts, and turned his social media account private.
He also missed Estudiantes’ Libertadores defeat to The Strongest on Thursday night.
According to Los Andes, Estudiantes coach Eduardo Domínguez told a press conference: ‘He is a boy who can make mistakes, we all make mistakes. When we want to set an example, I say we look inside. He has to be calm, he did nothing wrong.’
Palacios has no senior Uruguay caps to his name, but has made several appearances for the under-23s, and was named in Uruguay’s squad for the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament at the start of the year, although they did not qualify for the Games.
Bielsa surprised many by calling up an amateur player, Walter Domínguez, for a friendly against Costa Rica.
Palacios subsequently deleted his celebratory Instagram posts and turned his account private
Bielsa surprised many by calling up an amateur player for a friendly against Costa Rica
The former Leeds boss was unable to bring in players from a number of Uruguayan clubs as they have commitments in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana competitions.
Uruguay are currently 16th in FIFA’s world rankings, with Bielsa’s first major campaign at the helm set to be the Copa America in the United States.
