Argentina lock horns with Uruguay on Wednesday evening in a crunch World Cup qualifier. Both sides can still directly qualify for South Africa, but neither of the two teams can afford to spill points.

Argentina are not exactly in majestic form, as they only narrowly picked up the full three points against Peru last weekend. The Albicelestes needed a late Martin Palermo goal to pick up a 2-1 victory.

However, it appears as if Palermo’s heroics during the weekend have not resulted in a spot in national team coach Diego Maradona’s starting XI for the upcoming clash against Uruguay.

Argentinian newspapers claim that Maradona will make three changes in his line-up compared to last weekend’s match, but Palermo is not one of the three new men in Argentina’s starting XI.

Several reports suggest that Federico Insua, Enzo Perez and Pablo Aimar will make way for Juan Sebastian Veron, Martin Demichelis and Nicolas Otamendi.

Nevertheless, Maradona has yet to react to the reports suggesting that Palermo will not be part of the starting XI for Wednesday’s game.