Mauricio Pochettino said Friday that Chris Richards will not take part in the United States' final World Cup tune-up against Germany and that the defender's availability for the tournament is in doubt, telling reporters: "He’s still not ready to compete and play."
The update lands days before the U.S. opens its World Cup group stage on 12 June and after Pochettino said the staff would "have that opportunity in the next few days to assess him and see his ankle, and then to make a decision." Richards injured his ankle in Crystal Palace's second-to-last Premier League match against Brentford; Palace manager Oliver Glasner described the injury as torn ligaments, and Richards missed Palace's finale at Arsenal and the Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano.
Pochettino said he had previously believed Richards was nearer to full fitness after reports from Palace suggested a rosier outlook. "There was a line of information where we were thinking that he could play that final against Rayo Vallecano," Pochettino said, adding that Richards "was on the bench of subs, you remember? After that, [we thought] he could maybe be [involved] against Senegal. In the end, the timelines [are] lengthening and [it] angers me a bit. I’m not happy, because we know Chris Richards is an important player. Of course we all know it."
The personnel consequences are immediate: Richards will not be available for the Germany friendly and his recovery window before the World Cup opener is tight. Pochettino has carried a 26-man roster with five center-backs and a couple of wide defenders able to deputize centrally; with Richards absent last weekend, Mark McKenzie occupied the heart of the three-man center-back unit in the 3-2 win over Senegal, Tim Ream operated from the left of the buildup, and Alex Freeman helped in wider defensive phases.
Pochettino stressed the medical line the staff will follow, saying, "We are never going to take a decision to play with some player that [has a] minimum risk," and insisting that "all of the players that are going to start, or players that’s going to come from the bench, it’s because they are healthy, and they are 100% fit to play." That stance frames the immediate selection calculus: Pochettino can protect a spot on the 26-man roster because of depth, but he will not gamble on a half-fit centre-back for the tournament's opening fixtures.
Richards' preparation has been cautious. He spent time rehabbing alone in pre-World Cup camp before joining a full-team session at the National Training Center on Wednesday. Even after rejoining the group he continued to work separately on a second field with two trainers, doing resistance-band exercises and lateral-motion drills — limited, targeted work that underlines why Pochettino says Richards is not yet ready to "compete and play."
The friction in the story is clear: Pochettino had interpreted Palace signals as evidence Richards might push into the squad; instead, healing timelines have stretched and prompted frank frustration from the coach. That gap — between the hope that Richards would be fit and the reality of an ankle still under assessment — is the reason a player Pochettino called "important" arrives at the tournament on the edge of selection rather than comfortably in the lineup.
Pochettino has set the schedule: the medical team will reassess Richards' ankle in the coming days and the coaching staff will make a selection decision thereafter. That choice will effectively answer the single most consequential question now — whether Richards can be cleared to join the United States for its World Cup opener against Paraguay on 12 June.
