{"id":686488,"date":"2026-06-05T18:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/686488\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:40:09","slug":"chris-richardss-world-cup-in-doubt-as-ankle-injury-rules-usmnt-defender-out-for-germany-friendly-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/686488\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Richards\u2019s World Cup in doubt as ankle injury rules USMNT defender out for Germany friendly | USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Richards will not take part in the United States\u2019 final World Cup<\/a> tune-up friendly against Germany, head coach Mauricio Pochettino said in Friday\u2019s pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n

While Pochettino awaits further assessments, the defender\u2019s status for the World Cup is decidedly in doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still not ready to compete and play,\u201d Pochettino said Friday. \u201cI think we are going to have that opportunity in the next few days to assess him and see his ankle, and then to make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richards suffered an ankle injury in Crystal Palace\u2019s second-to-last match of its Premier League season against Brentford. The exact nature of the injury is not known, except for Palace manager Oliver Glasner saying that he had torn ligaments<\/a> in his ankle. He missed their league finale against Arsenal and did not play in the Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano. Ahead of the Arsenal match, Glasner said Richards could be available for the European final, an assessment that had cast a rosier projection of Richards\u2019s readiness for the World Cup \u2013 boosted by several reports that there was little doubt in Richards\u2019s camp about his availability for this summer\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Pochettino admitted he believed Richards was closer to match fitness given Glasner\u2019s comments that the defender could potentially feature in the Conference League final.<\/p>\n

Instead, Pochettino and his staff will have to make a decision on a key player\u2019s readiness to contribute at this World Cup given the shrinking window of recovery between now and the group stage\u2019s opener 12 June against Paraguay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a line of information where we were thinking that he could play that final against Rayo Vallecano in Conference League,\u201d Pochettino said in Spanish on Friday. \u201cHe was on the bench of subs, you remember? After that, [we thought] he could maybe be [involved] against Senegal. In the end, the timelines [are] lengthening and [it] angers me a bit. I\u2019m not happy, because we know Chris Richards is an important player. Of course we all know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Richards spent his time in pre-World Cup camp rehabbing by himself until a session at the National Training Center on Wednesday, when he took the training field with the rest of his teammates. While they partook in the customary pre-training stretch circles and rondos, Richards was off to the side on a second field with a pair of trainers, doing resistance band work while working on his lateral motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are never going to take a decision to play with some player that [has a] minimum risk,\u201d Pochettino said on Friday. We prefer to not take [a] risk. That\u2019s why all of the players that are going to start, or players that\u2019s going to come from the bench, it\u2019s because they are healthy, and they are 100% fit to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who could play in Richards\u2019s place?<\/p>\n

With Richards unavailable for last weekend\u2019s 3-2 win<\/a> over Senegal, Mark McKenzie was stationed at the heart of the center-back trio. Tim Ream broke lines from the left side, while Alex Freeman served as an elbow back to drop deeper in defensive phases and help with build-up in a wider position.<\/p>\n

Richards\u2019s complicated status helps contextualize the number of defenders Pochettino included in his 26-man roster, including five center-backs and a couple of wide defenders who can deputize centrally. This group have had extended time to gel and form chemistry ahead of the tournament, decreasing the need to make a like-for-like replacement along the back if Richards is unable to play at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

World Cup teams are able to make medically related changes to their tournament squads up until 24 hours before their group-stage opener. Pochettino has until 11 June to determine whether or not Richards will remain part of his tournament plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, we can hope that Chris can be there,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cBut in the end, we\u2019re going to find ourselves with a player who\u2019s coming without competing [for a month] and after, we have to make the decision if he\u2019s in form to compete or not. And there\u2019s not a lot of time [until] the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Richards will not take part in the United States\u2019 final World Cup tune-up friendly against Germany, head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-686488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}