Luis Suarez has said he “would never say no” to a return to international football if Uruguay needed him for the upcoming World Cup.

The striker, 39, stopped making himself available for his country in September 2024 after claiming head coach Marcelo Bielsa had “divided the whole group”.

However Uruguay’s all-time leading goalscorer has now opened the door for a return after a 19-month absence from international football.

“I would never say no to the national team if they need me, especially with a World Cup coming up,” Suarez told reporters as quoted by Spain’s EFE news agency.

“At the time, I stepped aside to make way for the younger generation. I said something I shouldn’t have said. I have already apologised to those I needed to apologise to.”

Former Barcelona and Liverpool forward Suarez, who has 69 goals in international 143 appearances, has played in four World Cups for Uruguay since 2010.

He stopped a Ghana goal with a handball in the quarter-final of his first tournament in South Africa and was banned for four months after biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in Brazil four years later.

Now at Major Soccer League side Inter Miami, Suarez said he still feels the desire to compete.

“You realise you still have a little bit of life left in you. You get the urge to keep competing,” he added.

“You can see it on the pitch when you still get angry about the losses and the bad passes, and you still enjoy it when you score goals.”

The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, runs from 11 June to 19 July.

Uruguay, who progressed in fourth from South American qualification, start their campaign against Saudi Arabia in Miami on 15 June, and will also face Cape Verde and Spain in Group H.

It will be a third World Cup for former Leeds coach Bielsa, with the 70-year-old having lead his native Argentina in 2002 and Chile in 2010.