Chile v Paraguay preview: Arturo Vidal missing for Copa America champions

In their first match since winning the Copa America, Chile will be without Arturo Vidal in Saturday's friendly against Paraguay.

The Bayern Munich star was released due to "personal reasons", allowed to return to Germany and miss the friendly in Santiago de Chile.

Vidal has said he expects to be back with the Chile squad for October's World Cup qualifiers.

The 28-year-old's absence is a blow for coach Jorge Sampaoli, whose team celebrated Copa success in July.

Chile are unbeaten since a friendly in March, but they are likely to find it much tougher with Vidal.

Also missing is Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, Hoffenheim's Eduardo Vargas and Bayer Leverkusen's Charles Aranguiz.

Chile may be fortunate to still have Sampaoli, who was heavily linked with the Mexico post after leading his team to Copa America glory.

Despite the absences, they still have the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Matias Fernandez, Gary Medel and Mauricio Isla.

Paraguay have a strong record against Chile, winning 26 of the 59 matches between the nations with eight draws and 25 losses.

Ramon Diaz's men were fourth at the Copa, losing the third-place play-off 2-0 to Peru.

Paraguay are coming off back-to-back losses, with their defeat against Peru preceded by a 6-1 loss to Argentina.