MONTERREY -- Mexican defender Jorge Torres Nilo, Mexican champion with Tigres, said on Friday that he sees the panorama for attending the 2018 World Cup in Russia as complicated, but he does not lose hope and works in case he is required by Colombian coach Juan Carlos Osorio.
The defender attended South Africa 2010 and although he did not play, he tasted the competition and seeks to repeat it, but he has little in his favor because, in Osorio's process, he was called up for 11 matches in 2016, but in 2017 he was not called up and his last match was on October 11, 2016 against Panama in Chicago.
"Right now, the truth is that the panorama is not very good to go (to the national team), theoretically, but I have always said that my future depends on God. I do my best and I do not lose hope of attending," said Torres Nilo in a press conference.
In the left-back position, Torres Nilo's position, Osorio has called up Jesús Gallardo (Pumas UNAM) and Luis Reyes (Atlas) more regularly, so the chances of the Tigres defender returning to the national team are remote.
The 30-year-old defender avoided comparisons with his colleagues and pointed out that he has "very well defined" his qualities and is aware of his possibilities. "I had the chance to go to South Africa and if you ask me, at that time, seven months before, I saw it as very difficult," he said.
He estimated that Osorio "already has in mind most of the members" who will attend Russia and estimated that the next friendly match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 31 in San Antonio, Texas, "will be to observe some players," whom he wished success although he stressed: "anything can happen from now until the World Cup."
For that match, Osorio called up Luis Rodríguez, Hugo Ayala, Javier Aquino, and Jürgen Damm from Tigres, who will first play against Pachuca on Saturday in the fourth round of the Mexican Clausura and then report to the national team in Mexico City on Sunday.