Alphonso Davies Included in Canada’s World Cup Squad Despite Injury

Alphonso Davies with the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2018.
Alphonso Davies with the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2018. Photo by Brad Smith/ISI/REX/Shutterstock (9762276a)

Bayern Munich left-back Alphonso Davies has been included in Canada’s 26-man roster for the World Cup despite his injury woes, as was confirmed when Canada Soccer unveiled its World Cup squad on Monday.

Davies tore his right hamstring at the beginning of November, thereby leading to his omission from Bayern Munich’s team during their last two league games before the World Cup break.

“The medical team assessed him and it wasn’t great news to be fair, the timing of his return was going to take anything up to 14 days,” Canada head coach John Herdman revealed. Due to Davies being a key player in the squad, Herdman decided to take a chance on him in the hopes that he will embark on a smooth and timeous recovery.

LAFC defender Doneil Henry is also among the injured, incurring a calf injury while participating in the warm-up for Canada’s friendly game against Bahrain last Friday.

Unlike Davies, Henry was ruled out of the squad. “Doneil put the team first, we could have tried to return him to play and had him later on in the tournament but he knew it was the right decision to make,” Herdman explained, praising the player for showing “courage and brotherhood” by putting his team first.