Arturo Vidal may not be available for Bayern Munich against Schalke

With the international break this week and next, Bayern Munich players are involved in matches all over the world. From Asunción, Paraguay to Astana, Kazakhstan, you can find a Bayern player kicking a ball in hopes of leading his team to the World Cup in Russia.

Unfortunately, sometimes scheduling gets in the way and ruins a good thing. In this case, Bayern have been scheduled to play Schalke on Friday, September 9. This means that most players will play their World Cup Qualifier on Tuesday, return to Munich on Wednesday morning, and likely attend a training session on Thursday to prep for Friday’s game.

However, for Arturo Vidal, it’s not so simple.

Chile’s match against Bolivia starts Tuesday night at 9:30 pm local time. That is 2:30 am Wednesday morning in Germany. This would mean that, at best, Vidal would arrive back in Munich late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Carlo Ancelotti would need to ask himself if it was in Vidal’s best interest — or the team’s interest, for that matter — to throw him out on the field on Friday against Schalke in what could very well be a tough match for Bayern. Do you want to play a guy that has played a game and flown halfway across the world within the last two days? Probably not.

The qualifier isn’t one that Chile can afford to let Vidal skip either. After seven qualifying matches, Chile are in seventh place. In CONMEBOL, the top four teams automatically qualify, while the fifth team enters a playoff against Oceania. Still, with eleven games left, Chile will still expect to qualify for Russia.