Javier Aquino not taking World Cup spot for granted

Tigres winger Javier Aquino is not taking his place for granted ahead of the summer World Cup in Russia. The 28-year-old has been picked in Mexico’s 28-man provisional squad for the global tournament but he remains anxious over whether he would make the final 23-man squad under Juan Carlos Osorio.

Aquino has been a crucial player for El Tri over the past seven years and he featured in seven of the country’s 10 matches during the World Cup qualification phase. Despite this, the experienced attacker admits that he is not resting on his laurels and wants to make the final cut ahead of the World Cup.

"I don't feel safe until I'm with the team in Russia. Even though I've been a regular, anything can happen, everything can change. I'm happy and have the desire to get to work. We're going to give all our effort to stay on the list of 23. We know its coach Osorio's decision, but we'll do everything possible to be there,” he said.

Whilst anything can happen between now and June 4, it is unlikely Osorio will leave Aquino from the World Cup squad considering most of the additional selections have been done on the defensive side, where Osorio has a few injury concerns. El Tri are scheduled to play a friendly against Wales in Los Angeles on May 28 and the team is thereafter expected to return to the training base prior to their June fixtures against Scotland and Denmark. Two days after that, El Tri will travel to Russia for the World Cup where they have their campbased innorth-western Moscow.

Mexico have reached the last 16 stage of the World Cup in each of the previous six editions of the tournament and their aim would surely lie on bettering this result to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 1986.