Welp... no McKennie next month (reportedly out 2-3 months with ankle fracture)

Yeah, was bad.

He is our best player right now and is legit irreplaceable.

I just hope we can qualify and he can get back into form by the start of next season.

Do we miss the WC again?

This is our hardest window, we are down our best player, and all our trends regarding road and second game results point to disaster here.

May end thankful to wind up in a playoff with NZ at this point.

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Paul Tenorio @PaulTenorio
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Source confirms this to me. Initial thought is McKennie will be out 8-12 weeks. #USMNT

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Fabrizio Romano
@FabrizioRomano
Juventus and USMNT midfielder Weston McKennie has suffered the rupture of 2d and 3d metatarsal of his left foot, after tonight injury vs Villarreal. ?????? #UCL @CBSSportsGolazo

Bad news for Juventus and United States national team.

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Do we miss the WC again?

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We should beat Panama at home with no McKennie.

Beat Panama and we qualify.

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This is such a USMNT thing to happen, Pulisic scores a big goal today and McKennie gets hurt.

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I don't know if he would've had a role in the upcoming window... but didn't Gio Reyna reaggravate an injury too?

Thankfully Gio's injury wasn't as serious as originally feared. Dortmund is say he'll only be out a couple weeks.

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Get a point on the road in Trinidad against the worst team in the Hex and we qualify.

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I mean, every world cup cycle, there's pretty much always a game where you have to beat someone to qualify.

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I am not confident we beat Panama at home. They are better coached, and we have yet to win a second game in any window of this qualifying round.

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Other than the Canada game in the first window, all of our second games have been on the road.

We haven't been at full strength for literally any match during this qualifying cycle and yet we've still won all by one of our matches at home and that was one draw was to the team at the top of the group.

You're being a little to fatalistic.

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They are better coached

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You're a big Thomas Christiansen fan?

LINK
This is a really good run down by a sports medicine fellow on the potential injuries that may have occurred in addition to his metatarsal fractures. I personally think that the syndesmosis injury is the more likely of the two that he discussed, given the external rotation mechanism. I am really hoping that this is not a Lisfranc injury, because this is what destroyed Sebastian Lletget‘s career (the mechanism is usually a downforce on the heel with the toes planted). Additionally, it would be at least a six-month layoff, whereas the syndesmosis injury can be fixed with a tight rope surgery and players get back much more quickly (see: Tua, x2).

How many Panama matches have you watched to make that assumption?

I mean Jesus Christ, Gregg isn't perfect, not even close, but we're in second place heading into the final window. Meanwhile Panama is in 4th and still has to play in the US, which statistically, has been the hardest place to get points from in the Ocho.

And yeah, I get it, Trinidad and Tobago happened, but we were in much worse position heading into that window than we are heading into this one. We beat Panama in Orlando 4-0 in that window right before we lost at T&T.

Relax. We're going to qualify for the World Cup.