{"id":525725,"date":"2026-03-08T00:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/525725\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T00:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:51:08","slug":"usmnt-gets-injury-scare-as-sergino-dest-limps-off-with-psv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/525725\/","title":{"rendered":"USMNT gets injury scare as Sergi\u00f1o Dest limps off with PSV"},"content":{"rendered":"

United States<\/a> defender Sergi\u00f1o Dest<\/a> limped off with an apparent hamstring injury during PSV Eindhoven<\/a>‘s 2-1 win over AZ Alkmaar<\/a> in the Dutch Eredivisie on Saturday, putting him in doubt for the national team’s upcoming friendlies against Belgium<\/a> and Portugal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dest grabbed his left hamstring and screamed in pain while covering his eyes after tumbling in his own penalty area chasing Alkmaar’s Wouter Goes<\/a> in the second half. The fullback was substituted in the 57th minute, leaving the field with the assistance of two medical staff, unable to put weight on his left leg.<\/p>\n

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“He landed on the ground after a full sprint and grabbed his hamstring. That’s usually not good news,” PSV coach Peter Bosz said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. hosts Belgium on March 28 and Portugal on April 1 in warmup matches for the World Cup, which it is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada in June and July.<\/p>\n

Dest, 25, has two goals in 37 international appearances and started all four U.S. matches at the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Sergi\u00f1o Dest went down injured in PSV Eindhoven’s win over AZ Alkmaar.\u00a0Jeroen Putmans\/Soccrates\/Getty Image<\/p>\n

He joined PSV from Barcelona<\/a> but was sidelined for nearly 11 months after tearing an ACL in April 2024, missing that year’s Copa Am\u00e9rica.<\/p>\n

If Dest is unable to play at the World Cup, versatile Juventus<\/a> player Tim Weah<\/a> — who is on loan at Marseille<\/a> — could take his place. Alex Freeman<\/a> and Joe Scally<\/a> are also potential options.<\/p>\n

Fellow American Ricardo Pepi<\/a> scored PSV’s winner from close range in the 86th. It was his 10th league goal this season and 13th over 26 games in all competitions.<\/p>\n

Pepi has two goals in three games since returning from a broken arm suffered in January.<\/p>\n

“I am very happy that I was able to play 90 minutes and also scored,” Pepi said. “It feels good to be back and to contribute to this important victory at home.”<\/p>\n

“Of course [this season] has been frustrating due to injuries and therefore I had to be patient, but I got myself through.”<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States defender Sergi\u00f1o Dest limped off with an apparent hamstring injury during PSV Eindhoven‘s 2-1 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-525725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}