Rio de Janeiro, June 11 (IANS) Barcelona’s Dani Alves has replaced injured Real Madrid full-back Danilo in Brazil’s Copa America squad, the country’s football federation (CBF) said on Thursday.
Danilo suffered a badly sprained right ankle in Brazil’s 2-0 friendly victory over Mexico in Sao Paulo on Sunday. The 23-year-old, who this month joined Real Madrid from Porto, was due to fly to the Spanish capital for treatment on Thursday, reports Xinhua.
Brazil will begin their Copa America campaign against Peru in Temuco on June 14. They will also meet Colombia and Venezuela in the group stage.
Alves has not represented the ‘Selecao’ since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where he played in the hosts’ first four matches before being dropped. He was an unused substitute in the team that lost 1-7 to Germany in the semifinal and also missed the 0-3 defeat to the Netherlands in the match for third place.
The 32-year-old, capped 79 times for Brazil, this week signed a new deal with Barcelona after helping the Catalan outfit to a 3-1 victory over Juventus in the Champions League final on Saturday. He had been expected to leave the club after rejecting offers to extend his contract in March and May.