Hong Hyun-seok ruled out of Klinsmann with stress fracture, replaced by Park Jin-seop

“Determined to be excluded from granting breaks”

Jürgen Klinsmann’s South Korea men’s national soccer team has made a change ahead of its first World Cup qualifier. Defender Park Jin-seop (Jeonbuk Hyundai) has been named in place of midfielder Hong Hyun-seok (Hent), who is out with an injury.

The Korea Football Association announced on the morning of the 16th, “Hong Hyun-seok has been ruled out due to injury. Defender Park Jin-seob has been selected as a replacement,” and said, “Park Jin-seob joined the national team on the night of the 15th.”

According to the association, Hong Hyun-seok felt discomfort in his left shin area before the official training on the 15th and underwent an examination at a hospital, where a microfracture was found in his left tibia.

“Although it is not a serious injury that can be exercised, the medical team’s judgment that initial management is important in the case of a fatigue fracture was decided to exclude him to give him a rest to prevent further injury,” the association said, adding, “Hong Hyun-suk is scheduled to be released after participating in the match against Singapore.”

Hong will return to the team after watching the first match of the second Asian qualifying round for the FIFA Confederations Cup North America 2026 at 8 p.m. today at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.

Only Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), Kim Young-kwon and Jeong Seung-hyun (Ulsan Hyundai) were called up from the November A match roster for central defense.

Klinsmann had previously said, “We can only have 23 players on the roster for the World Cup qualifiers. I thought three up front was good and necessary, so I took out the center back,” explaining that the roster restrictions meant he had to select fewer central defenders.

Park’s call-up gives the team more room to rotate the central defense.

Meanwhile, Park earned his first call-up to the national team after helping Hwang Sun-hong’s men’s soccer team win the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games as a wild card. 스포츠토토맨