USMNT’s Aaronson Out for World Cup Qualifiers With Knee Injury

U.S. men’s national team winger Brenden Aaronson is out for the end of World Cup qualifying after suffering a knee injury, U.S. Soccer confirmed on Monday. 

Aaronson was supposed to play for Salzburg on Sunday, but he was pulled before the team’s match vs. Wolfsberger in the Austrian Bundesliga. Salzburg mentioned that Aaronson missed the game with “knee problems.” As it turns out, it’s a bit more severe than that. According to ESPN’s Taylor Twellman, Aaronson suffered an injury to his MCL that will rule him out 2-4 weeks. U.S. Soccer stopped short of confirming that but did release a statement that addressed his withdrawal.

“After reviewing the updated medical information and in consultation with Red Bull Salzburg, we have determined that Brenden Aaronson would not be available to play in the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches,” U.S. Soccer wrote. “We were hopeful he would be able to recover in time; unfortunately, that will not be the case. We hope he makes a speedy recovery.”

Aaronson is the only player to appear in all 11 World Cup qualifiers so far for the U.S., which currently sits tied for second place with Mexico in the Concacaf Octagonal standings, with both four points behind first-place Canada and four ahead of fourth-place Panama. The top three teams at the end of qualifying automatically qualify for the World Cup, while fourth place goes to an intercontinental playoff against Oceania’s champion in June.

The USMNT is preparing for three games to try and secure a return to the World Cup. It is set to play Mexico in Mexico City on Thursday, Panama in Orlando on March 27, and Costa Rica in San José on March 30.

Aaronson’s injury is the second recent issue to creep up in recent days, with Sergiño Dest being forced to withdraw from the U.S. squad after injuring his hamstring playing for Barcelona on Thursday in the Europa League. He was replaced by Arminia Bielefeld left back George Bello. Weston McKennie had already been ruled out for the qualifiers after suffering a fractured foot playing in the Champions League for Juventus, while goalkeeper Matt Turner is also out with a foot injury.

The U.S. did receive a good dose of recent injury news on two other fronts, with Gio Reyna returning for Borussia Dortmund, and goalkeeper Zack Steffen overcoming a shoulder injury at Man City.