Barcelona's Alejandro Balde replaces the injured Valencia defender Jose Gaya in Spain's World Cup squad.

Barcelona's Alejandro Balde has replaced Valencia's Jose Gaya in Spain's World Cup squad.

Gaya sprained his ankle in training on Wednesday and will be sidelined for around 10 days, meaning he would have missed the group stage.

According to ESPN, Luis Enrique had considered keeping Gaya in Qatar but on Friday decided to call up Balde, ahead of their opening game against Costa Rica on November 23.

Despite being a regular in Spain's youth teams, this is Balde's first senior call-up and he will challenge his club teammate Jordi Alba for the starting role at left-back.

The 19-year-old beat out another Barca teammate to make the squad in Marcos Alonso, who has played six times for Spain under Enrique, but Balde has emerged as a consistent figure in La Liga this season, starting 12 out of the 14 games under Xavi this year.

Spain get underway against Costa Rica on November 23 in Group E, before then facing Germany and Japan. body check tags ::

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