Mexico midfielder Marco Fabian has said that he wants to focus on the run-in of the Bundesliga season with Eintracht Frankfurt, explaining his absence from his national team.
The 27-year-old at the weekend played his first full 90 minutes after missing large parts of 2017 with back problems.
The playmaker returned to the Frankfurt team last week, coming off the bench in the defeat at Bayern Munich. On Saturday, he made his first start this year when Eintracht drew 0-0 with Hamburg.
The draw saw Frankfurt drop to seventh in the Bundesliga standings, and after only winning seven of a possible 24 points in the second half of the season, Eintracht could miss out on qualification for a European competition.
However, Fabian has not given up on playing in Europe next term. He told reporters that he cancelled his trip to play in Mexico's World Cup qualifiers against Costa Rica and Trinidad-Tobago so that he would continue improving his fitness and help the Bundesliga side turn their season around again.
"I asked to be omitted from the national team. It's been cleared with the national team coach [Juan Carlos Osorio]," Fabian said about his absence from the squad for the March 24 and 28 matches.
"I want to fully focus on Eintracht and do everything I can physically to be able to help the team in the best way possible during the run-in."
Fabian was one of Frankfurt's key players during the first half of the season.
Osorio told reporters on Monday that the decision to keep Fabian and Jesus Corona out of national team play over the next week was taken before their return to weekend action with their respective clubs.
"I exchanged WhatsApp messages with Jesus and it is worth mentioning that [Corona] along with Marco were fortunate to be able to return for their clubs, but we had already decided with the clubs that we were going to give them both a chance to rest so unfortunately they won't be with us," Osorio said. "We will play our game with the players we have, all of whom are doing well at the moment. We must focus on those who are here with us and not those who are missing."