Americans Abroad Five: Injury bug strikes at worst possible time

TL;DR

Four American soccer players sustained injuries just a month before the World Cup, impacting their readiness. One player's chance to participate in the tournament appears to be over.

Key points

Four American soccer players injured
Injuries come a month before the World Cup
Players may lack recent playing time
Johnny Cardoso's World Cup dream likely over

Johnny CardosoU.S. men's national team

With a month until the World Cup kicks off, this was not the week that U.S. men's national team fans would have hoped for.

No less than four Americans Abroad went down with injuries during the past week. There is nothing severe among the group but it appears that at best, the players will enter the World Cup with a shortage of recent minutes.

But for one player at least, their World Cup dream looks like it's already over.

This week's Five will take a look at an unexpected late injury crisis for the USMNT.

Johnny Cardoso's World Cup dream likely over

We'll kick off with Johnny Cardoso – not because he is the most important player injured this week, but because he seems the most likely to miss the World Cup.

The Atlético Madrid midfielder suffered a "high-grade" right ankle sprain during training this week, which could spell the end of his hopes for Mauricio Pochettino's squad. Atlético announced on Monday that Cardoso will undergo surgery.

Even low-grade sprains can sideline players for multiple weeks and for someone like Cardoso, who would have been on the roster bubble even if healthy, a high-grade sprain and surgery is probably too much to recover from.

Cardoso has been a hugely frustrating player from a USMNT perspective. At the club level the 24-year-old has been one of the standout holding midfielders in La Liga, but for the U.S. he's been injury-prone and inconsistent. His World Cup dream might now have to wait until 2030.

Christian Pulisic's year goes from bad to worse

Plenty has gone wrong for Christian Pulisic in the past few months, but he had at least managed to stay relatively healthy amid a huge dip in form.

But that is no longer the case after Pulisic was forced to miss 's 3-2 defeat to Atalanta on Sunday with a glute muscle injury. Milan is suffering a late-season tailspin that has seen the club go from title contender to desperately trying to hold onto a top-four spot.