Inter Miami CF’s star signing Gonzalo Higuain is officially training with his new teammates, but he’s not yet cleared to play in official competition pending some final paperwork.
The club confirmed that the Argentine striker “has been cleared for training and has joined his teammates and coaching staff.” but that he “remains unavailable for match selection as he awaits the receipt of his P-1 visa and International Transfer Certificate.” His acquisition was officially announced on September 18.
Head coach Diego Alonso confirmed the news in his pregame conference call with media members.
“Yes, it’s true that Gonzalo is now training with us as you know and will have seen,” Alonso said. “For the moment, he’s dealing with final details on the visa and he’s waiting for the ITC [international Transfer Certificate]. So we still don’t have an idea on the timeline for those final details. We don’t know if it’ll be done for this week or next.”
The club will rely on MLS veteran Juan Agudelo or SuperDraft No. 1 pick Robbie Robinson to play the center forward role against the New York Red Bulls for the Week 13 match on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET | TV & streaming) and Week 14 on Sunday in Philadelphia (7:30 p.m. ET | TV & streaming).
Agudelo went the full 90 and scored one of the team’s two goals in their recent 2-1 win in Atlanta and Alonso also indicated that Robinson is “ready to play and fully recovered” after last appearing against Orlando on Sept. 12.
Alonso confirmed that all players are available and ready to play except for Argentine center forward Julian Carranza, who is still dealing with an ankle issue and needs “a couple more weeks.”
