"Wingback Castrov" Test Eventually Collapses, Hong Myung-bo's Injury Recall Hong Myung-bo Team

*This content was translated by AI.

Jens Kastroff (23, Mönchengladbach)'s much-anticipated "wingback test" ahead of the A-match warm-up match in March was canceled.

According to the Korea Football Association on the 30th, Castrov, who was called up to the South Korean national soccer team for the A-match warm-up match in March, was released from the call-up due to an ankle injury and returned to his team.

Castrov suffered a right ankle injury in his team's game just before the national team was called up, and he has been treated and trained at the same time since the national team was called up, but was eventually diagnosed as difficult to play in Austria's away game at 3:45 a.m. (Korea time) on the 1st of next month.

As a result, the idea of national soccer team coach Hong Myung-bo to test Castrov as the national team's "wingback" is also completely twisted.

Castrov, who became the first foreign-born mixed-race player to join the men's A team in September last year, initially attracted attention as a midfield resource. Coach Hong Myung-bo, who first selected him for the national team, also expressed his expectations, saying, "He is a different type from the existing midfielders."

However, despite being constantly called by coach Hong Myung-bo, Castrov has not established himself as a clear starting player, with only two of the six A-matches during the convocation period, and all of them only playing in the 45th minute of the first half.

However, he recently changed his position from his team to wingback and scored multiple goals just before the national team was called up, attracting a lot of attention as a new "wingback resource" for the national team. Coach Hong Myung-bo also announced his plan for a wingback test by classifying him as a "defender" rather than a midfielder on the call-up list of two consecutive Ivory Coast and Austria warm-up matches.

If Kastrov, who won the Mönchengladbach Player of the Month award in March thanks to his performance as a wingback, shows competitiveness, Lee Tae-seok (24, Austria Vienna) and Lee Myung-jae (33, Daejeon Hana Citizen) will be on the left and Seol Young-woo (28, Tsurvena Zvezda) and Kim Moon-hwan (31, Daejeon) will be on the right side, a new wind of change could also blow up in the Hong Myung-bo Team wingback competition.

However, Castrov, who had been concerned about injury since joining the national team, eventually watched the last Ivory Coast match from the bench. As his injury condition did not improve afterwards, he eventually decided to return to his team early instead of accompanying the national team on an away trip to Austria.

The two consecutive warm-up matches against Ivory Coast and Austria are likely to be the last opportunity for warm-up matches before announcing the final entry for the World Cup. Currently, they are in a situation where they have to prepare for the 2026 FIFA 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup without even properly testing Castrov as a wingback.

Coach Hong Myung-bo deployed Seol Young-woo and Kim Moon-hwan as left and right wingbacks in the last match against Ivory Coast (0-4 loss). In the match against Austria, Lee Tae-seok, who missed the match against Ivory Coast, is on the left, and Seol Young-woo is likely to return to the right.

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*This content was translated by AI.