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Salman Al-Faraj is not only the captain and leader of the team but a calming and composed presence in midfield. He makes the team tick. Coach Renard last week compared him to Thiago Motta, the former Barcelona, Inter and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder who started his career playing for Brazil and then became an Italian international.
It was quite the compliment but the problem is that Al-Faraj has been struggling for fitness all season. He has only played 179 minutes of league football this season for Al-Hilal and it has been a real stop start campaign.
He has missed the majority of the preparation games since qualification for the World Cup and then didn’t even last the first half against Iceland as he collected a shoulder injury after falling awkwardly. It doesn’t seem that Renard sees this as a particular knock.
