U.S. soccer team faces uncertainty over defender's availability ahead of World Cup

Chris Richards will not play in Saturday's match against Germany because of an ankle injury, U.S. soccer team coach Mauricio Pochettino said. The game in Chicago is the team's final preparation match before it opens the World Cup on June 12 against Paraguay.

Injury timeline Pochettino said Richards is training but is not yet ready to compete. He added that the player's recovery period has extended beyond the timeline U.S. Soccer expected when the roster was selected. "When we decided the roster, we thought that Chris could play in the final of the Conference League on May 27 because we designed the roster previously," Pochettino said.

The coach noted that Richards was on the bench for that match and that subsequent recovery estimates continued to lengthen.

Roster considerations FIFA rules allow injury replacements up to 24 hours before the team's first World Cup match. The team has limited depth at Richards' position. In last weekend's match against Senegal, the team used a back three of Tim Ream, Mark McKenzie and Alex Freeman.