Canada’s historic World Cup run came to an end with a 3-0 loss to Morocco in the Round of 16 at Houston Stadium, and head coach Jesse Marsch addressed why star fullback Alphonso Davies didn’t feature in the loss.
Speaking after the match in his press conference, Marsch explained that a minor scare in the days leading up to the game led the coaching staff to hold Davies back entirely rather than risk his recovery from the hamstring injury that had already cost him the group stage.
“He had a hamstring injury that he was recovering from. He was on a very linear path up until two days ago, and then he felt a little something. It turned out that it wasn’t anything significant, but he didn’t feel right, and we didn’t want to stress it,” Marsch said. “But other than that, the progression and the routine that we put him through in his return to play was really good and really disciplined”.
Despite not being able to count on Davies for most of the tournament, Canada put together a historic campaign, reaching the knockout stage for the first time in the nation’s history.
Davies’ injury-interrupted road through the tournament
Davies’ World Cup had been a story of careful management from the start. The Bayern Munich fullback suffered a hamstring injury during the Champions League semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain back in May, an issue serious enough to keep him out of Canada’s entire group stage while he worked through a structured rehabilitation program.
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He finally made his tournament debut in the Round of 32 win over South Africa, coming on as a 75th-minute substitute and immediately causing problems for a tiring South African defense.
That cameo raised hopes he could feature more prominently against Morocco, but the scare picked up in training two days before the match was enough for Marsch to hold him out entirely, even with Canada’s season on the line.
In the end, Canada couldn’t find a way past a resilient Morocco side, falling 3-0 to bring a landmark tournament to a close, one that still included the country’s first-ever World Cup win and first appearance in the knockout stage.
