Amid a veil of mystery over the absence of Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez on the list of travelers from the Esmeraldas del Leon to visit the Xolos de Tijuana in the Caliente stadium that has with artificial turf and has caused several injuries to important players.

James Rodriguez surprisingly did not appear among the players summoned to travel to the border city of Tijuana in the list submitted by the coaching staff headed by Argentine Eduardo Berizzo, while neither the board of directors, the communications department of Leon and much less the medical service, remained silent regarding the absence of the Colombian figure.

Without a doubt the absence of the highly valued Colombian player generates suspicions, because after the activity of the FIFA date, Rodriguez had minutes last weekend against Tigres, but from that moment on nothing has been published regarding the Colombian midfielder and much less the reasons for his supposed refusal to travel to Tijuana where they will face the complicated Xolos this Friday at the Caliente stadium.

Meanwhile, local journalists who cover the activity of the Bajio squad on a daily basis began to manage messages about it on social networks and where they generated doubts about the true reason for James Rodriguez's absence in the match of the ninth date of the Apertura 2025 tournament of the Liga MX.

“It is difficult for James Rodriguez to play on the synthetic field of the Estadio Caliente. If I were in his place, I would not have risked an injury either, much less with the World Cup ticket in hand. James did not travel to Tijuana,” published reporter Paco Vela of Multimedios on social networks.

The supposed reasons for James’ absence

According to all versions, the main reason for James Rodriguez’s absence for this match is that the field of the Estadio Caliente, the official home of Xolos Tijuana, has synthetic grass as a surface and that it has caused many injuries to several players.

So the people around James Rodriguez assure that the Colombian does not want to take any risks that could compromise his presence in the next World Cup and although there is still a lot of time, the experienced midfielder knows that synthetic turf causes many knee or ankle injuries, so that is why he refuses to be taken into account by the coaching staff.

So far, Leon is in tenth place with 11 points and they will seek to surpass Xolos who occupies sixth place with 13 points, with which a victory would allow them to cut seven places to place themselves in a better position in the table.

Without James Rodriguez, Leon will rely on Jordi Cortizo and the rest of the squad made up of Oscar Jimenez, Ivan Moreno and Alfonso Alvarado, among several others, to face this commitment of matchday 9 of the Apertura 2025 tournament of the Liga MX.