The injury bug is hitting the U.S. men’s national team player pool as the clock ticks toward the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with the Americans now just three weeks from kicking off in Qatar.
Weston McKennie and Josh Sargent are the latest pair of American players to suffer injuries on club duty this weekend. McKennie played 45 minutes in Juventus’ 1-0 win over Lecce on Saturday before being removed from the match at halftime due to a thigh strain.
Sky Sports Italy announced Sunday that McKennie will miss their UEFA Champions League group stage finale on Tuesday against Paris Saint-Germain and will be sidelined at least 15 days.
Sargent missed Norwich City’s 3-1 EFL Championship win over Stoke City on Saturday due to a reported calf injury. The 22-year-old left an Oct. 18 match against Luton Town due to a leg injury, but returned to play 90 minutes apiece in matches at Sheffield United on Oct. 22 and at Burnley on Oct. 25.
“[He] Felt it Tuesday, played on,” Dean Smith said postmatch. “But it was just too tight today…. He’s got the opportunity to maybe get called up for the World Cup as well. We can’t risk him. And he didn’t feel it was right to go today.”
McKennie has scored three goals and registered one assist in 16 combined appearances for Juventus this season. The 24-year-old overcome a preseason injury to feature regularly for Massimiliano Allegri’s squad during the first half of the league and European schedule.
His projected return to action would be one week before the USMNT opens its group stage schedule against Wales on Nov. 21.
Sargent has been a top contributor for Dean Smith’s side this season, leading the Canaries with eight goals in 17 league appearances. He’s also added two assists for the current fifth-place side.
There is no timetable for Sargent’s return for Norwich City ahead of Wednesday’s league clash with QPR. Norwich City will also face Rotherham United and Middlesbrough prior to the World Cup break.
The recent news of McKennie and Sargent’s injuries is not good news for Berhalter and his coaching staff following word of Luca De La Torre’s injury earlier this week. De La Torre is expected to miss three weeks due to a leg injury suffered in training.
Berhalter’s final roster will be announced on Nov. 9 in Brooklyn, New York. The USMNT will face Wales on Nov. 21 before taking on England on Nov. 25 and Iran on Nov. 29.
I’m looking for an app or website that I can share amongs friends so we can make picks for World Cup — you know, like we do for NCAA March Madness on ESPN or CBS Sports.
I’ve only been able to find printable brackets….I want something we can enter electronically, share and then track along the way.
Any suggestions are most appreciated.
in theory the US should already have made a 55-man provo roster filing with FIFA in late october. we do not have to announce that list to the press. notably, england has released theirs. we then called a short list to the domestic training camp. not a bunch of competition, injury replacements, or wiggle room. what the 2 have in common is reducing the roster pool universe about which the press and fans can chatter if there is a surprising or debatable choice. the “donovan” problem. but that’s at the expense of actual bodies in camp to play soccer and adjust to roster issues. and, to be blunt, if the team then sucks, you will have bigger issues than “donovan.” “donovan” is generally regarded as a footnote because we made the round of 16 without him in 2014. so people make jokes about klinsi’s kid’s social media. in the end they are primarily judged on how the team does. leave it to USSF to be more concerned about tamping down media controversy than whether we have enough bodies ready to play the right positions. which is GB’s pattern — call too few and then let the roster erode further as people get knocks. how about plan ahead.
Mexico is only bringing 31 of its possible 55 to camp.
IV – I think you are assuming people that have virtually no chance of making the team would be willing to go to a camp. To have a meaningful camp right now, he would need to have about 23 players at WC level, which of course don’t exist in MLS or other leagues that are not in season now. I am pretty sure his camp right now is to keep the people he thinks are still in contention from eating at McDonalds four times a aday and keeping up fitness until he can have a full camp with the European based team for real prep. I would have brought in Williamson and Mahailovic but not sure who else you think he should have brought in.
(1) if you have a brain you don’t tell the players what their chances of making the team are. heck, i don’t think we should be as sure as GB is what their odds are. that’s half my point. (2) this is not “do i go to club training camp or do i play gold cup,” a less meaningful US game vs club duty, this is the whole point to being USMNT. so, yes, the vast majority of players called to a training camp would show. the more likely scenario is they would throw a fit when they got cut — than that they would skip it. (3) i think you’re assuming training camp players would be euro based but the whole point is most of them are in season and won’t be released until the roster deadline. i am assuming they would be eliminated MLS — nothing to do but see their family or go on vacation — or they can roll the dice on the US — who might have a less snobbish more ambitious response, even if they faced hard odds. (4) our recent injury rash might affect their perceived odds. (5) re your number count, i said call 15-20 and then you can make numbers for domestic training from youth players. my issue is not using some youth — we have historically called people like bradley when he was a teen in 2006, who were fated to be cut. my issue is the amount of players he called to camp and how many are useless U20s given our injury issues and IMO need for roster competition. you call this few senior players there are few replacement players ready and you’re stuck either carrying hurt people or with no real choice on who replaces them. you might even have to end up standing up players you already sat down which is just bad planning.
IV- (1) pretty sure the players know without Gregg telling them – don’t you think you know? I know I think I do (3) training camp now has to be MLS – that camp would be similar to January camp and won’t be preparing anybody for the WC (4) You don’t think he already has a depth chart that goes well beyond the numbers he will bring at each position? For instance people like Vines and EPB probably played themselves out of contention during September but they are likely injury replacement ahead of any MLS players he could bring in to camp now (5) I understand your point but I am not sure how useful that would be for WC prep as previously stated. For instance Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronson, and Ferriera can all play the 10 and Gregg rates all of them above Mahailovic I am certain. If one of them goes down with injury and he decides he needs another 10, he would likely look at Tillman or even Mendez who starts every game in Portugal at the 10. Even ppoentially sonora who would all be in season playing competitive games and training against better players than he can bring in right now. Mahailovic is probably the 7th option at best at that position. He can only bring 23 field players to WC. Who do think he has slighted that isn’t similarly low on the depth chart (excluding European players who aren’t available now)?
Tele57,
Actually Gregg can bring 26 players and will have 5 subs per game.
Which may not seem like a lot but really could be a very significant change.
Vac- he can only bring 23 field players; 3 of the 26 have to be goalies. I do think he can dress 10 subs per game with only 1 having to be a goalie. I agree that 5 subs is very different than 3 subs and lets coaches have a potentially bigger impact on the outcome of the games.
my experience with a pulled calf it was a lot like a pulled hammy. that’s a month minimum. otherwise just like a hammy you can retweak that doing anything til it heals. running, walking, cutting, stepping off a curb.
personally i would assess weston but cut LDLT and sargent, based on past productive history.
you do not want to be wasting subs on hurt players or wrong choices at the world cup — jozy or clark. this is not an “honorific” like making all-america or all-state. the idea isn’t to reward favorites or players you respect but are hurt. this needs to be a functioning soccer team of your best healthy, fit, and sharp players. LDLT and sargent were marginal anyway. they are not worth the injury risk. i am not the biggest weston fan but he will score some big goals. so you might carry him and see what happens. i would only do one or two that way and they should be elite.
We really have until Nov 20 to replace players due to injury. Hopefully these are all people just being cautious leading into WC.
JR, I doubt Juvetus cares too much if McKennie plays in the WC but i think they do care if he misses the rest of the season. McKennie at his best is a special player so I would bring him but I don’t think I would bring LDLT. Not a lot of great options though but bringing an i jured guy you hope to not play seems like a waste of a roster spot. I agree with you that Mahailovic is not a like replacement for either of those players. I hoped for Erick Williamson but that ship has sailed.
I think it was Norwich’s manager mentioned the WC in reference to Sargent. It benefits Juve if Wes plays in the WC if they are planning on moving him. Not sure Juve is in a good enough position to play that kind of 3 dimensional chess though. The USSF staff will be in contact as to what grade of strains each injury is and probably daily the next 10 days to check progress.
In previous World Cups, taking an injured player was a calculated gamble but the risk was ameliorated somewhat by the fact that a player had the rest of the summer to recover if they aggravated a pre-existing injury.
This time, the Euro players in Qatar at the end of the tournament will have a significantly shorter amount of time to recover and prep for a number of vital games.
Norwich’s manager for example, cannot be thrilled by the prospect of Josh, his best striker, going to Qatar and potentially aggravating whatever injury he has now. And there are quite a few other clubs with that exact same concern. I’m sure Allegri would prefer Weston to spend WC time resting in Italy rather than playing in Qatar.
Gregg may be forced to call in Djorde. I just hope Gregg remembered to put Djorde on the preliminary 55 man list.
(a) the roster deadline would come during camp and not during the season. or the MLS would be released from their teams a month early anyway. (b) because camp was longer you could bring in someone not physically able to play club, and they had a few weeks to rehab. (c) let’s be real, this sort of treatment would be more extended to someone awesome. as a dynamo fan i know they just went ahead and cut ching when he pulled a hammy at the wrong time. marginal players with injuries get cut. it’s an indulgence in favor of the best players, playing for time. (d) due to the timing of club vs world cup this time, the lack of a full release camp, someone hurt at this point would be like someone getting hurt in camp before. we have a roster deadline in like 2 weeks. we start playing in a little over 3 weeks. some of the dynamic some of you are thinking of is like when someone used to get hurt 6 weeks out, get called to camp and carried, but by game day could be rehabbed. guys getting hurt right now, the ortho might tell them to rest until we’re in qatar. much less start running and playing. it’s not quite the same. (e) weston or someone like that might be worth a limited risk. only an idiot carries a half dozen hurt people at this juncture. and that indulgence is usually not accorded to bench players, who are more easily replaceable. you just “pick the other guy.” hence my beef about how few he called to fitness camp which reduces your ability to simply make the switch.
blah blah blah something about calling more players than we need
i think the part you are confused about is if i shut down a player now then they can’t be your injury replacement. my point re some marginal MLS candidates is have them still training “just in case.”
i also think you’re being impractical in suggesting we swap players the day before the tournament. this is not the old gold cup. this is the world cup. you’d want them in camp — my point on numbers called up. they’d have to be in one or both camps.
the US should per usual communicate with the players and their doctors about their health. but if the team says he’s out 3 weeks i think the docs aren’t happy and you’re the one being very hopeful and subjective. you don’t carry hurt players on a limited roster out of hope. at least historically not many and only our best. the rest you need a healthy high functioning soccer team not dragging a bunch of knocks behind it. don’t be silly.
I’m pulling muscles just reading all this injury news. Not overly hopeful for our chances, even with a full squad, but I hope these guys stay healthy and do as well as they can in Qatar.
Quaker – hopefully Gregg will play with 6 primary defenders (I consider Musah in that pot) and 4 primary attackers (I would have McKennie in that pot). Still healthy would be Pulisic, Weah, Reyna, Aaronson, Pefok, Pepi, Ferriera so they still have good options for attackers. My glass might be half full. I have more concerms about tactics than injuries right now but I do think Gregg has always planned to play a 4231 at WC and has done his best to leave little footage for teams to prep. He showed this a little in June and his June tactics were different than qualifying.
Gregg has always gone more pragmatic when matches count. We lost 4 guys this week, if we lose 4 more next week we’ll need to park the bus! Only somewhat kidding.
Tactics aside, I hope Wes, Sargent, LDLT, Dest, and others get to go because they’ve been there through most of qualifying… and it’s likely their life’s dream and all that. Would suck if they couldn’t go based on these injuries. I also think we need Wes on set pieces to have great success. I also don’t care if we technically have “enough” players even with these injuries. I want to see our best lineup there.
Quaker Otis,
“I also don’t care if we technically have “enough” players even with these injuries. I want to see our best lineup there.”
Even if they are rusty or limited and can’t play their best?
i think it could have been easily forecasted based on the 3 game window experiences, our injury history, as well as the high game tempo in europe to get schedule in, that this would be a high attrition fall. we love analytics. ask analytics what happens if they play 2 games a week for months. his pattern during quali was he would start with a modest number then let the numbers get short. he is following his pattern again. analytics.