Balde among the surprises in Luis Enrique's pre-list for World Cup

Spain's World Cup campaign begins on Nov. 23 against Costa Rica. Before then, Luis Enrique has to name a squad of up to 26 players for the finals.

Prior to that, the Spain boss has to deliver a pre-list of up to 55 names to FIFA on Friday. The list has still not been made public but there are five players per position and among them are Ansu Fati, Sergio Ramos, Iago Aspas and Gerard Moreno.

While there are unlikely to be too many surprises with the final squad, there are genuine doubts about what happens with Ansu as he fights his way back from injury problems. Others, such as Ramos and Aspas, don't appear to have much chance of making the World Cup at this stage.

Alejandro Balde

One of the surprise names on the list is Barcelona's 19-year-old left-back Alejandro Balde. He has been one of the breakout players in LaLiga this season but has not yet received senior international recognition.

In the most recent squad, Luis Enrique opted for Jordi Alba and Jose Luis Gaya at left-back.

Injuries and fitness issues surrounding some of the usual names are a great concern and the main reason why Luis Enrique is still unable to completely outline his 26 names. Gerard Moreno and Mikel Oyarzabal, both speeding up their respective recovery processes, would undoubtedly be two fixtures in the Asturian's scheme if not sidelined