{"id":4245,"date":"2026-05-30T18:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T18:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4245"},"modified":"2026-05-30T18:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T18:16:22","slug":"we-need-to-see-uncertainty-over-chris-richards-injury-as-world-cup-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4245","title":{"rendered":"&#039;We Need to See:&#039; Uncertainty Over Chris Richards&#039; Injury As World Cup Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14><strong>U.S. SOCCER NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER (Fayetteville, Ga.) <\/strong>\u2014\u00a0United States center back Chris Richards, the top defender on coach Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s U.S. squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, won\u2019t play in Sunday\u2019s pre-tournament preparation match against African power Senegal in Charlotte.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Richards injured ligaments in his left ankle playing for English Premier League club Crystal Palace on May 17. He was healthy enough to train ahead of Palace\u2019s UEFA Conference League final win over Spain\u2019s Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday and dress for the match, but didn\u2019t get off the bench.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The 26-year-old Birmingham, Alabama native traveled across the Atlantic the next day and arrived at U.S. Soccer\u2019s sprawling practice facility on Friday morning, though he didn\u2019t work out with teammates later in the day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>During Saturday\u2019s pre-match press conference at the USA&#8217;s facility outside Atlanta, I asked Pochettino for an update on Richards\u2019 health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;We decided with Chris, with the medical and the performance staff, to not to be part of the group that is going to be in North Carolina playing tomorrow against Senegal,&#8221; he said.\u00a0 &#8220;I think he needs to keep doing his rehab, and I think it&#8217;s much better to stay here and plan to train and reevaluate next week how he is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14><i><strong>&#8211; <\/strong><\/i><i><strong>Meet USA&#8217;s Captain: Tim Ream To Wear World Cup Armband<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>With the USA\u2019s June 12 World Cup opener against Paraguay now less than two weeks away, Richards&#8217; ankle is obviously a serious concern for the former Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager. Pochettino revealed that he\u2019s repeatedly sought updates on Richards\u2019 status from his top assistant coach, Jes\u00fas P\u00e9rez, over the last couple of days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;I was asking from yesterday, [when Richards] arrived, to Jes\u00fas 100 times: What do you think?&#8221; Pochettino said. &#8220;The answer was \u2018wait, wait, wait, wait.\u2019 Yes, it&#8217;s too early. We need to see. The next few days are going to be key to see [if he&#8217;ll] be ready or not for the World Cup.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>If Richards can\u2019t play, the Argentine has options. Although Pochettino named the 26-player U.S. squad on May 26, the 48 participating teams aren\u2019t required to submit their final rosters to FIFA until Monday. Even then, Pochettino could replace Richards or any other injured player up to 24 hours before their first World Cup game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY U.S. SOCCER NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER (Fayetteville, Ga.) \u2014\u00a0United States center back Chris Richards, the top defender on coach Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s U.S. squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, won\u2019t play in Sunday\u2019s pre-tournament preparation match against African power Senegal in Charlotte. Richards injured ligaments in his left ankle playing for English [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}