Thibaut Courtois, who was included on Friday in Belgium’s 26-man team to play Ukraine in the two-leg Nations League playoff, will play his first Nations League game later this month.
The 32-year-old, who has 102 caps for Belgium, was forced to miss last year’s European Championship, but the Real Madrid goalkeeper has changed his mind since Tedesco was fired and Rudi Garcia was named the new coach in January.
Belgium Squad
Goalkeepers: Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Senne Lammens (Royal Antwerp), Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest), Maarten Vandevoordt (RB Leipzig)
Defenders: Timothy Castagne (Fulham), Zeno Debast (Sporting Lisbon), De Cuyper (Club Brugge), Koni De Winter (Genoa), Wout Faes (Leicester City), Brandon Mechele (Club Brugge), Thomas Meunier (Lille), Arthur Theate (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Midfielders: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Bryan Heynen (Racing Genk), Jorthy Mokio (Ajax Amsterdam), Nicolas Raskin (Rangers), Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa), Hans Vanaken (Club Brugge)
Forwards: Charles De Ketelaere (Atalanta), Jeremy Doku (Manchester City), Malick Fofana (Olympique Lyonnais), Romelu Lukaku (Napoli), Dodi Lukebakio (Sevilla), Lois Openda (RB Leipzig), Alexis Saelemaekers (AS Roma), Leandro Trossard (Arsenal)
The roster announcement on Friday was Garcia’s first since taking over as coach for the team’s playoff matchup against Ukraine. Next Thursday, the first leg will take place in Murcia, Spain, while the second leg will return to Genk on March 23.
Koen Casteels, the starting goalkeeper in Courtois’ absence, was not pleased with his impending return. As a result, Casteels resigned from the national team last Sunday, expressing disapproval of the decision to grant the former keeper’s demand to return.
Casteels implied that Courtois’ actions during the altercation with Tedesco had angered other players as well.
