2026 World Cup co-hosts Canada kick-off their tournament tonight against Bosnia and Herzegovina – but captain and star player Alphonso Davies won’t be there.
Following a glitzy opening ceremony, which will feature Alanis Morissette and Michael Buble, Canada will hope to get off to a winning start in Toronto.
It will be no easy task, especially given that The Maple Leaf Team have lost all six of their previous World Cup games.
Still, their starting XI for Friday night’s match features plenty of talented players, including Juventus striker Jonathan David.
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But skipper Davies, widely considered Canada’s best player in years, is not in the line-up, and while named among the substitutions, it has already been confirmed he will not come off the bench.
The left-back, who can also play on the wing, suffered a hamstring injury during Bayern Munich’s Champions League semi-final tie against PSG in May.
Unfortunately, while the 25-year-old has returned to training, Canada Head Coach Jesse Marsch announced pre-game that he has not recovered in time to play against Bosnia,
‘We did an MRI with him [on Wednesday]. It showed very positive signs that he’s healing incredibly well, almost completely,’ the former Leeds United boss told reporters.
‘We’re getting ready to ramp things up. I think that he’s showing, like he always has, a real good ability to recover from muscle injuries.
‘I think that having his private physio here has been very helpful, and the concentration on his body’s needs every day. And so we are really hopeful that over the next days and week that we can accelerate things and give him a chance to contribute here soon.’
Canada are in Group B and are set to take on Qatar and Switzerland.
Remarkably, Davies’ injury record has been so poor, he has only featured in two of Canada’s last 21 matches.
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