World Cup check-in: Ecstasy and agony for USMNT's Premier League contingent

Injury scares for Brenden Aaronson and Chris Richards

If you think club soccer teams are slowing down and playing gentler, more conservative games lately, you're not imagining things. Nobody wants to take a risk and get injured just a few weeks out from the World Cup. There are few feelings worse than making a national team roster but having to withdraw due to a silly last-minute knock.

Sometimes, though, those silly last-minute knocks come for you no matter how careful you are—and that's exactly the fate that befell Leeds's Brenden Aaronson and Crystal Palace's Chris Richards on May 16. Both left their respective Premier League games with minor injuries; Aaronson's is said to be a "dead leg," while Richards's appears to be a swollen ankle.

Both players should be fit in time for the World Cup—Palace manager Oliver Glasner even hinted that Richards could be fit for next week—but seeing them go down so close to the tournament struck fears in the hearts of USMNT fans across the country. Aaronson and Richards play key roles in Mauricio Pochettino's system and they would be huge losses for the team. Wrap them both in bubble wrap until the USMNT's opener on June 12, please.

A last-minute challenger?

No player has broken through in Major League Soccer this season quite like Real Salt Lake's Zavier Gozo. The 19-year-old Utah-born phenom is on a tear with six goals and three assists to his name in 2026. His latest move for the highlight reel—a perfectly-timed goal against Rocky Mountain rival Colorado—has many clambering for Pochettino to bring him to the World Cup as a surprise last-minute selection.

Gozo has a USMNT pedigree: he went to the U-20 World Cup in Chile last summer and performed well there. But he hasn't yet had any game time with the senior squad, and he's still finding his footing as an all-around player (his goalscoring record is spectacular, but his defensive record—particularly in the wingback role Salt Lake coach Pablo Mastroeni likes to see him in—is less so.) This World Cup is probably a little beyond Gozo's reach, but expect him to get his USMNT flowers in the very near future.