Chile urgently calls-up back-ups for World Cup qualifiers

Chilean midfielders Diego Valdes, Esteban Pavez and Jaime Valdes from local clubs Audax Italiano and Colo Colo were urgently called up by their national football team coach Juan Antonio Pizzi for the upcoming World Cup qualifying match against Venezuela.

The match, which will take place on March 29, will be Chile's sixth qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup to be held in Russia. Matias Fernandez and Marcelo Diaz were injured in Chile's 1-2 defeat to Argentina on Thursday and for that reason Pizzi was forced to bring in new forces urgently, reports Xinhua.

"It is an honour for us and we are very happy because people will be able to see all the work we have done with Diego. He is a player who has been trained on home soil all his life with the help of Jorge Pellicer's coaching team, and we are confident that we have given him everything to allow him to perform at his best on the pitch," Lorenzo Antillo, Audax's sports manager, said of Valdes.

These three players will join the squad on Saturday and then travel to Barinas for their match against Venezuela on Tuesday.