- Marcelo Bielsa will not consider midfielder Tiago Palacios for Uruguay’s squad
- Palacios crashed a truck in a drunk driving incident, injuring three people
- Would a Man United player make the Arsenal team? Listen to It’s All Kicking Off! podcast
Marcelo Bielsa will not consider Estudiantes player Tiago Palacios for Uruguay’s Copa America squad after reports claimed he almost killed a woman while driving under the influence.
Former Leeds boss Bielsa took charge of Uruguay last year, winning six of the first 10 games.
However, midfielder Palacios will not feature in this summer’s Copa America tournament after a truck accident while celebrating beating Velez Sarsfield to win the Argentine Primera Division final with his club.
Palaces, 23, lost control of his truck on Monday after the drunken celebrations and hitting a fuel pump at a Shell gas station in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires, leaving three people requiring medical attention with minor injuries, as confirmed by LA NACION.
The Estudiantes midfielder took a breath test after the incident and the result came back positive with 1.84 grams of alcohol per liter of blood, about three times the legal limit.
Former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa will not consider a midfielder for his Uruguayan side
Tiago Palacios of Estudiantes was driving a truck drunk when he crashed into a gas station
Palacios (right) was found to have three times the legal limit after a breath test
Yahoo reports that he has been investigated for causing minor injury by negligence and has been provisionally banned from driving for one year.
Palacios subsequently deleted his celebratory Instagram posts and made his social media account private.
He also missed Estudiantes’ Libertadores defeat to The Strongest on Thursday evening.
According to Los AndesEstudiantes coach Eduardo Domínguez said at a press conference: “He is a boy who can make mistakes, we all make mistakes. If we want to set an example, I say we should look within. He needs to calm down, he hasn’t done anything wrong.’
Palacios has no senior Uruguay caps to his name but has made several appearances for the under-23s was included in Uruguay’s squad for the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament early this year, although they failed to qualify for the Games.
Bielsa surprised many by calling up an amateur player, Walter Domínguez, for a friendly against Costa Rica.
Palacios then deleted his celebratory Instagram posts and made his account private
Bielsa surprised many by calling up an amateur player for a friendly against Costa Rica
The former Leeds boss has been unable to sign players from a number of Uruguayan clubs as they have commitments in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana competitions.
Uruguay are currently 16th in the FIFA world rankings, with Bielsa’s first major campaign at the helm being the Copa America in the United States.