Josh Sargent’s day begin with the American striker scoring the opening goal at Stoke City, but ended with worry about his immediate future.
Sargent suffered a tweak to his ankle in the Canaries’ 3-0 English Football League Championship win over the Potters. The recent U.S. men’s national team call-up delivered the opening goal for David Wagner’s men before being substituted off in the 82nd minute.
Sargent’s close-range finish in the 24th minute broke the deadlock at the Bet365 Stadium, giving him his 10th goal of the new year and 14th overall this season.
Gabriel Sara and Ashley Barnes both added tallies of their own to further extend Norwich City’s advantage to 3-0. Sargent watched the final few minutes from the sidelines though due to a sore ankle, which could potentially rule him out of international duty.
“Josh [Sargent]’s ankle is sore, he got another knock and a little bit of a twist; he has an ice pack on it, so we have to for sure assess this,” Wagner said postmatch in a club interview.
Sargent hasn’t featured for the USMNT since the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and is in risk of missing his latest opportunity.
The USMNT hosts Jamaica on Thursday in CONCACAF Nations League semifinal action while Norwich City enters a break from league play.
That ankle needs to get right. I’m calling in Haji if I’m GGG. Aaronson for LDLT if he can’t go.
Didn’t sound too bad but we do have Wright, Vazquez, Ferreira, and Pefok all available. All have goals and/or assists in the last couple matches.
I would prefer Wright right now as he is more versatile like Sargent, but Vazquez or Pefok could work too. I hope it’s not the pirate and. I doubt GGG would bring him but you never know
OnS: Jesus is more versatile than even Wright and Jamaica is in the Caribbean. If they don’t make the call by tomorrow it’ll be Jesus or Vazquez because of the travel for Jordan and Haji.
OnS: if they wait until Monday to replace Sargent, it’s not going to be Wright. With travel he’d have little to no training time before Jamaica. If you recall Jackson Yueill made several camps just by being located in the US. FCD have moved Ferreira to a W spot (instead of 9, played some 10 late when they were down) and he’s been battling an injury so he hasn’t been great, but he’s located really really close to the NL semifinals in Dallas.
Pivotal as JS is to Norwich chances of promotion, his recent recovery from major injury, I don’t think Wagner was ever too hyped about sending Josh in the first place and hedged/hinted as much weeks ago. Wouldn’t be surprised if it is nothing more than a conveniently timely, minor “tweak.”
I’ll refrain from negging other choices. Very good form in a tough league, solid option at S and W… set piece defense, a late goal set piece option that matches well with potential opposition this window, I’d replace JS with Wright all day.
Even before today Norwich made it known that they were going to ask the US not to call Josh up so he could rest his already injured ankle.
All today’s knock means is that Norwich has a better case to keep him at home.
Josh is better off getting healthy for the bigger tournament, Copa and he needs to keep Norwich in the promotion hunt.
So today’s news is a good thing.
If you had the leading goal scorer in all of England since Jan 1, you’d probably want to keep him too.
CONCACAF website says change up to 24 hours before first match due to serious injury or medical reason but players have to be from preliminary roster. Another article saying LDLT is in doubt now also due to injury.
Yes, so all the players mentioned Wright, Vazquez, Aaronson, Ferreira, Zendajas, and Pefok all would be eligible. If it gets too far into the week Ferreira, Vazquez, Zendajas and I suppose T. Tillman or Acosta would be the likely replacements because of travel time. Pretty much everyone else on the list would be with the U23s in Europe so could but probably wouldn’t be brought back.
JR, I was comparing Haji to the other two in being able to play wing as well. Yes, Jesus is more versatile because he can play the 10 as well. While Jamaica is in the Caribbean, it’s not Grenada or T&T. I’ve seen enough of Jesus where I think we have better options right now. We’ve also seen him disappear in the big games.
I wish he went overseas though. I think his best position is probably as a 10, and playing in a better league would help him grow more.
OldNSlow,
Gregg sometimes doesn’t replace players who drop out . I don’t think he will replace Josh if Josh has to beg off. He might replace LDLT though.
Roldan wasn’t on the preliminary roster so I see it as between Brenden and Kellyn.