Topics: CONCACAF Gold Cup, Mexico, Gerardo Martino, Javier Hernández, Héctor Herrera, Carlos Vela
Coach Gerardo Martino was forced to leave some top-caliber names out due to personal reasons from most of the players.

The first official tournament for Gerardo Martino as Mexico's coach is here, and the Argentine boss decided to leave some key names out of his first call-up.

Speaking at the Femexfut's Centro de Alto Rendimiento, "Tata" Martino revealed the names of 40 footballers that will be called up to play a couple of friendlies against Venezuela and Ecuador, with the aim set on narrowing that list to 23 names.Surprisingly, the names of Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, Carlos Vela, and Jesús Corona were not included in this list.

Here's the full roster, as unveiled by the Mexican National Team.

Martino had already decided not to call Javier Hernández up, since he will be attending the birth of his first son, a baby boy. Meanwhile, Porto midfielder Héctor Herrera declined to join El Tri in order to focus on his club career, since he is still negotiating his transfer to Atlético Madrid. 

Martino did refer to Jesus Corona's absence. In what seems to be a disciplinary measure, Corona was excluded from the team due to a controversy that took place during FIFA's International break back in March, where Corona did not travel to Mexico's friendlies after claiming to be injured. Martino did not take the player's negative well, and he decided to erase the player's name from the squad.

"I haven't spoken to Corona since the days leading to the International break. After a thorough analysis, we decided not to call him up," Martino said.

Martino also referred to Carlos Vela's case, who seems ready to retire from international duties for good. The former Barcelona tactician admitted that this is the first time in which he's found out that a player does not want to represent his country of origin under his command.

"I had a chat with Vela and he told me that his club (Los Angeles FC) and his family are his priority right now, so he is stepping aside. It's not common, I never had to deal with such a situation neither with Paraguay nor with Argentina," Martino added.

The Argentine boss also referred to why he called Hirving Lozano up, even if he picked up a knee injury in recent weeks.

"He started a recovery program with his club, which is the same one he will follow here. If we can help him feel better, great. But the main thing is to have him fit for the tournament. Let's keep in mind that we don't need him just for the next 30 days, we need him to be fit for the next four years," Martino concluded.

Mexico has been drawn in Group A of the 2019 Gold Cup. El Tri will face Canada, Martinique and Cuba en route to try and win their eighth CONCACAF Gold Cup title.