Devastating Raul Jimenez Injury Update Could Prove Catastrophic for Mexico

El Tri’s star center forward will be out for an extended period with a knee injury.

Raúl Jiménez will be sidelined for the rest of 2026. | Richard Pelham/Getty Images

Mexico national team striker Raúl Jiménez will undergo knee surgery on Friday that will keep him sidelined for the rest of the year.

The veteran striker has been out of action since mid-September with an MCL injury he hoped to overcome with conservative treatment. On Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers released a lengthy statement, confirming the worst possible outcome for Jiménez.

“Raúl injured his left MCL against Everton,” Wolves director of performance Phil Hayward said in the statement, “which was four weeks ago now and unfortunately the injury has not responded as we expected, so we've decided that the best thing is to have surgery to repair that ligament.

“Normally the ligament for a fairly low-grade injury would heal on its own, however this has not responded as we were expecting, and after regularly scanning for the last three weeks, the ligament is not healing in the anticipated way.

Raúl Jiménez (bottom) has been sidelined since suffering a knee injury against Everton on Sept. 16. | Brett Patzke/WWFC/Wolves/Getty Images

“We’ve consulted with several knee specialists and decided the best course of action is to move to surgery to ensure that we are back in control of the time frames and have a clear idea of when he will be back.”

“So, he’ll have the surgery on Friday in London, and then he’ll have around three months of rehabilitation before he’s ready to play again,” Hayward added.

It’s a significant blow for Wolves who are currently 10th in the Championship standings and now will be without their legendary striker for an extended period. But it’s perhaps even more painful news for El Tri.

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Raul Jimenez Injury Is Major Blow for Rafa Márquez’s Mexico

Rafael Márquez (middle) had a poor start to his tenure as Mexico manager. | Jim Sabo/ISI Photos/Getty Images

The knee injury prevented Jiménez from featuring as the Rafael Márquez era as Mexico manager got underway during the September-October international action.

El Tri failed to collect a single win in its first four games following the 2026 World Cup and dropped its last two matches of the window in embarrassing fashion against the USMNT and against an inferior Chile side. Mexico scored just two goals in four games, but neither came courtesy of a center forward and they blanked in the two defeats.

At 35, Jiménez remains vital to El Tri’s attack. The nation’s second all-time leading scorer has bagged 11 out of Mexico’s last 25 goals in its three most recent official tournament appearances (44%). Other strikers account for just two strikes in that span.

“He [Jiménez] went to see a specialist yesterday and it was decided he will have surgery on Friday,” Mexico national team director Duilio Davino said on Wednesday. “We hope he returns to the pitch is as soon as possible because he’s a very important player for the national team, that we all want to have and that still has a lot of football left to give.”

Jiménez will miss at least two games for Mexico because of his surgery, two vital matches early in Márquez’s tenure.

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Raul Jimenez Out for El Tri vs. Jamaica in Nations League Quarterfinals

Raúl Jiménez had been mostly injury free over the last two years. | Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Mexico will be without Jiménez when it faces Jamaica in the two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals in November to wrap up El Tri’s 2026 action. The first two official games of Márquez’s tenure look manageable on paper, but Mexico knows how difficult these games can be.

El Tri visits Jamaica in the opening leg of the tie having lost in its two most recent away first legs in the tournament 2–0 against Honduras in 2023 and 2024 despite boasting a vastly superior side. Without Jiménez, the task at hand becomes considerably harder.

Armando González, Santiago Gimenez and Germán Berterame are the favorites to lead El Tri’s line in November, but the trio underperformed in the recent friendlies and only solidified the notion that Mexico can’t come close to its best version without the Wolves frontman on the pitch.

Still, Márquez will have nowhere to hide if the reigning nations league champion exits the competition against Jamaica, especially since El Tri will host the second leg at the Estadio BBVA in Monterrey on Nov. 17.

With Jiménez watching from home, the rookie manager must steer Mexico past Jamaica in his first official games at the helm, or else he could come under immense pressure just six matches into his tenure.

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