Lille OSC forward Tim Weah suffered an injury in the team’s preparations for their Sunday Ligue 1 game against Montpellier, and will be forced to miss all three World Cup qualifiers for the US national team.
Lille head coach Jocelyn Gourvennec confirmed in the post-game press conference that Weah’s previously unexplained absence from their 2-1 win on Sunday was due to an injury suffered in training on Saturday.
Any hopes that the knock was only minor and would not impact his availability for the upcoming games against El Salvador, Canada and Honduras were dashed on Monday when the US Soccer Federation confirmed to the Associated Press that he will indeed be forced to miss all three games.
No information has been given on the nature of Weah’s injury, and whether his absence will extend past the international break.
While the 21 year-old forward was not likely to be a preferred starter atop the attack for Berhalter, this does give the American coach one less forward option going into the grueling run of three games in six days.
USSF has given no information yet on whether Berhalter will opt to call in a replacement attacker to his squad in Weah’s place.
The Stars and Stripes see their qualifying campaign get underway on Thursday, Sept. 2 with a trip to the Estadio Cuscatlán in El Salvador, then return home to host Canada in Nashville three days later, before closing out the trio of qualifiers with a visit to the Estadio Olipmico in Honduras on Sept. 8.
