Atletico star Griezmann to miss friendly against Kitchee on Wed

Spanish football club Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann will not feature against Kitchee on Wednesday for the friendly match in Hong Kong, citing medical issues.

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Atletico will play against the Hong Kong club in their pre-season friendly fixtures at 8 pm tomorrow at the Hong Kong Stadium.

However, Diego Simeone's side announced recently that some stars, including Griezmann, Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul, and Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak, were not coming with the team to Hong Kong.

The club posted on its social media that the team medics assigned the French attacker a recovery plan to avoid injury before the season while recuperating and added that it was regretful that he would be missing the match.

They announced that they are giving out three jerseys signed by Griezmann, via lottery, which citizens with tickets can take part in.

The club also announced at yesterday's pre-match press conference that it would donate US$150,000 (around HK$1.17 million) to the "Hong Kong Premier League Committee Youth Development Fund" to support Hong Kong football youth training.

In a radio program today, Kitchee president Ken Ng said that Griezmann had provided a medical report proving he was not suitable to take part in the game.

He added that although some players could not play, Atletico Madrid has also added other top players such as Portuguese forward Joao Felix and Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth, with a total of 13 international players participating, and the current lineup is also worth treasuring.

The Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau stated that it will assess if the friendly match meets the "M" Mark event requirements before granting the subsidy. Furthermore, the participation of certain players is not a condition for obtaining the subsidy.