Chris Richards will not play for the United States against Germany on Friday, leaving his World Cup status unresolved as Mauricio Pochettino waits for more time to judge an ankle injury that has kept the defender out since late May.
Pochettino said Richards is “still not ready to compete and play” and that the staff will assess the ankle in the next few days before making a decision. The timing matters because the Germany match is the U.S. team’s last World Cup tune-up before the squad turns toward its 12 June opener against Paraguay.
Richards picked up the injury in Crystal Palace’s second-to-last Premier League match of the season against Brentford, and Palace manager Oliver Glasner said he had torn ligaments in the ankle. He then missed the league finale against Arsenal and did not take part in the Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano. He also sat out last weekend’s 3-2 win over Senegal, when Mark McKenzie lined up at the heart of the center-back trio in his place.
The U.S. had reasons to hope the recovery might move faster. Pochettino said he had seen comments suggesting Richards could potentially feature in the Conference League final and believed that meant the defender was closer to match fitness. Instead, the schedule has stretched longer than expected. Richards spent part of the pre-World Cup camp rehabbing by himself, then joined teammates on the training field Wednesday at the National Training Center, where he worked on a second field with two trainers while doing resistance band work and lateral motion drills.
Pochettino made clear that the staff will not rush the decision. He said the team will not play anyone with even a minimum risk, and that everyone who starts or comes off the bench must be healthy and 100% fit. That approach leaves Richards in a difficult spot: he is close enough to be working again, but not close enough to be trusted for a match that could decide his World Cup place.
That concern sits inside a broader defensive picture already shaped by Pochettino’s 26-man roster, which included five center-backs and several wide defenders capable of shifting centrally. It is a sign the staff expected some uncertainty there, even before Richards’s recovery slowed. Matt Turner and Tim Ream have already been named in Pochettino’s World Cup plans, and the next few days will tell whether Richards joins them or is left to chase the last shrinking window before the squad is set for Paraguay.
