Messi, Dybala to miss upcoming WC qualifiers?

The likes of Lionel Messi, Paulo Dybala, Lautaro Martinez may not be playing in Argentina's upcoming World Cup qualifying fixtures against Uruguay and Brazil as the Argentine Football Association (AFA) accepted to play this month's World Cup qualifying fixtures without their Europe-based players. 

Argentina are scheduled to play against Uruguay at home on March 27 and Brazil away on March 31. But the top Argentine players, who play their club football in Europe, may miss out on these outings. 

With this month's South American World Cup qualifiers in jeopardy as European clubs remain not obliged to release their players for the qualifiers due to the current Covid-19 travel restrictions, a virtual meeting was held on Friday between all 10 South American federations, the president of CONMEBOL and FIFA. 

And the AFA reportedly agreed to go along with the World Cup qualifiers for this month using only South America-based players while Brazil were against the idea of playing the matches this month.

A second meeting is expected to be held today as no final decision has yet been made.