Southampton man's omission sets off alarm bells – Gone from hero to zero

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Ben Brereton's absence from the Chile squad has raised concerns back in the country, with fears his replacement will endure the same fate as the Southampton man.

Chilean manager Claudio Borghi has shared his concerns to Red Gol, believing that current Chile boss Ricardo Gareca may be setting Lucas Cepeda up for a similar fall.

Brereton is set to be absent from the next international break when Chile will take on Brazil and Colombian in South American qualifying for the World Cup.

They've been having a difficult time of late and none more so than the Southampton man, who is clearly not to the liking of manager Ricardo Gareca.

The two have a fractious relationship, to say the least, and that was not helped during the last international break when Gareca hauled Brereton off after just 35 minutes in the 2-1 loss to Bolivia.

That made headlines worldwide and added to a solid belief Gareca doesn't like the Southampton man; after previously criticising the fact he doesn't speak Spanish.

He's now set to be left out and has been replaced by Colo Colo's Lucas Cepeda, something that is causing Borghi plenty of concern.

"This lack of players that we have. I don’t know how many years we’ve had this lack of players, but if we don’t work on them, we don’t invest, we won’t have a replacement," he said.

"Here I’m scared. I’m a little scared, because Ben arrived and we said, ‘Here’s the solution, the kid comes from English football, speed, vertigo’ and he’s already out.

“Now Cepeda comes. With how many games in Colo Colo? 10 games? Now Cepeda comes, he’s going to break it. And if he doesn’t break it? What do we say? ‘No, Cepeda out'.

“Every player who appears in the same game operates to destroy it and starts to be less important, less important.”

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