Ander Herrera has waited a while for his first call up to the Spanish national side.
Having represented his country at Under 20, U21 and U23 level, the Manchester United midfielder was asked to join up with the senior squad this week after injuries forced Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alcantara and Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez to withdraw.
Clearly, this wasn’t something that the 27-year-old was expecting, as a report in El Confidencial makes clear.
Herrera is said to have been in Madrid at the time he took the call from new Spain manager, Julen Lopetegui, and was so unprepared for it that he’d left his football boots in Manchester. As a result, the former Athletic Bilbao midfielder was forced to leave the Spanish squad’s base to go shopping for a new pair.
Spain face Italy, the side that knocked them out of Euro 2016, in a World Cup qualifier on Thursday night in Turin. If Herrera (and his new boots) make it on to the pitch, he’ll have earned his first cap at senior level.
After initially being left out of the United starting level, Herrera has been a starter in recent weeks for Jose Mourinho’s side, who travel to Liverpool in their next Premier League match on October 17.
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