{"id":571473,"date":"2026-03-30T20:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/571473\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T20:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:53:14","slug":"antonee-robinson-worried-whether-us-national-team-would-see-a-return-of-jedi-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/571473\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonee Robinson worried whether US national team would see a return of Jedi \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Antonee Robinson worried whether the U.S. would see a return of Jedi.<\/p>\n

Self-nicknamed the \u201cStar Wars\u201d character by himself as a kid, Robinson had not played for the national team from November 2024 until Saturday\u2019s 5-2 loss to Belgium because of lingering pain following right knee surgery last May 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seemed like there was kind of no light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d he said on the eve of his return.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnites States’ Antonee Robinson listens during a news conference before the men’s national soccer team training, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo\/Ronald Blum<\/p>\n

A 28-year-old left back, Robinson is a key player for Fulham in the Premier League and when healthy a first-choice starter for the U.S. Robinson assisted on Weston McKennie\u2019s opening goal against Belgium with the first corner kick Robinson ever took for the Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs to build,\u201d U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said. \u201cI want to see him in his best. And that is the challenge from here to the World Cup to arrive with all the players in their best performance, to perform in the way we believe they can perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson was raised in Liverpool. His father, Marlon, was born in England, grew up in White Plains, New York, and was on Duke\u2019s soccer team from 1981-84. Antonee was a member of Everton\u2019s youth academy, made his professional debut in 2017 in the League Cup in August 2017 while on loan to Bolton and his Premier League debut in 2020 with Fulham.<\/p>\n

His first appearance for the U.S. was in 2018. A chess player and a pianist, he strikes his own chord in the U.S. locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s into a lot of different things, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d American captain Tim Ream said. \u201cHis brain works very differently to a lot of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson didn\u2019t dress for Fulham\u2019s opener on Aug. 18 and was a second-half sub in the Cottagers\u2019 second and third games. He had a 23-day layoff, went the distance in a League Cup match on Sept. 23 and had a Premier League substitute appearance five days later. He then sat out until Dec. 13, losing his starting spot to Ryan Sessegnon.<\/p>\n

Sessegnon\u2019s hamstring injury allowed Robinson back into the starting lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to get myself in pretty good shape back at the club,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI\u2019ve been available for everything. I haven\u2019t missed any training sessions and I\u2019ve been sort of progressing with how I feel in myself and then translating that to playing games and getting back up to, you know, being sharp and being ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

As his rehab kept extending in the fall, Robinson was aware that the World Cup was nearing and he might run out of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo sort of certainty on my end that I was going to be fit and available,\u201d he recalled, explaining how he widened his search for advice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeking outside help for my rehab and different opinions and stuff on how I could change up what I was doing to get my physical condition a lot better,\u201d he said. \u201cA series of injections and things like that to try and let it heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

His preparation has expanded, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the first person at the training ground because I know I need to do a lot in the gym before I train,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the evening when I put the kids to bed I\u2019m doing more stuff to try and get myself in good shape so, yeah, it\u2019s been a long road but I\u2019m feeling really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Antonee Robinson worried whether the U.S. would see a return of Jedi. Self-nicknamed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-571473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}