Last I checked it was due to injury and him requesting to stay in Turkey to recover/gain trust with the manager. Unless those turned out to be BS.
listening to Carlos Velez the other day he had a good point about Rios. He's played an incredible amount of minutes this year between Palmeiras, Benfica and NT. Guy is due for some rest soon or he'll come to us for WC with an empty tank.
In Colombia's last four matches he only started in two of them so I think load management is being applied by Lorenzo. I expect the same thing for our next four friendlies.
Yeah he's played an insane amount of minutes, getting knocked out of CL might not be terrible giving him less game time.
So long as it is a fair enough run, him shaping up for the form we needs matter. I doubt Benfica will actually reach beyond the round of 16 or quarter finals.
His game isn't even really reliant on goals and assists, he's playing in a double pivot behind a 10 and isn't really able to get into goal scoring positions that often so shows how good he is to also provide goals and assists at this rate.
Oh I agree but there are gonna be times when we need a player to give a direct contribution especially against certain opponents that can be troublesome.
🚨 Se lesionó Richard Ríos por un tema del brazo. Así salió sustituido el colombiano en el partido donde #Benfica visitaba al #FCPorto por la Taça de Portugal. 🇨🇴 pic.twitter.com/twxDGfRMvw— Pipe Sierra (@PSierraR) January 14, 2026