Alexis Sanchez avoids International nonsense in January

There are few things that are unavoidable in life: death, taxes and Alexis Sanchez playing every damned minute of every game you don’'t lock him out of the stadium for. So when it was announced that the Chilean national men’'s soccer team was included in a brand new international tournament called The China Cup (basically, a four game friendly to promote soccer in China... I think), there were instant worries that Juan Antonio Pizzi would name Alexis to the sqaud.

Fortunately, reason has prevailed. Instead of naming the squad that won two straight Copa America titles and is still battling for a spot in the 2018 World Cup, they have named largely a B Team to get experience for other players:

No Alexis anywhere. This happily leaves Arsenal’s goalscoring forward available from important January games, as the team faces the start of the FA Cup, a battle atop the League table and hopefully good health leading into a critical February/March span. Might even find time to get Alexis a rest... don’t hold your breath.

For those interested, The China Cup takes place from January 10th to 15th in Nanning, China, and will be contested between China PR, Croatia, Iceland and Chile.