Colombia captain James Rodriguez spent three days in hospital with severe dehydration after featuring in his side’s 3-1 friendly defeat to France, the Colombian football federation confirmed on Thursday.
The 34-year-old, who plays for Minnesota United in MLS, was taken to hospital in Minnesota for monitoring and recovery. He was substituted off after 63 minutes of Sunday’s World Cup warm-up match in Landover, Maryland, having looked off the pace throughout.
Minnesota United confirmed he is on the mend, with an update on his availability for the weekend’s match against LA Galaxy expected on Friday.
Rodriguez only joined the MLS club in February and has managed just 39 minutes of football due to injury. The federation stressed that his hospitalisation was not connected to those existing issues.
His fitness is now a concern ahead of Colombia’s World Cup campaign this summer, where they are due to face Uzbekistan, DR Congo and Portugal in Group K.
Colombia boss Nestor Lorenzo has come under fire for selecting Rodriguez in both the France friendly and a previous warm-up against Croatia, despite the playmaker being well short of full fitness.
Rodriguez remains one of Colombia’s most important players. He was the top scorer at the 2014 World Cup, a tournament that launched him onto the world stage and earned him a move to Real Madrid shortly afterwards.
