For Mexico and Canada, injuries are striking just as World Cup hosting duty looms

Alphonso Davies suffered another injury blow at Bayern Munich Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images When Marcel Ruiz slumped into the grass of San Diego FC’s Snapdragon stadium late in the first half of Toluca’s Concacaf Champions Cup game last Wednesday, he seemed to already know. He covered his mouth with his left hand and clutched his right knee – first the back of it, then the front – with his other hand. He turned his head every which way, perhaps hoping that he might scan something or someone who would tell him that this was not in fact happening.

That his World Cup on home soil was not already over three months before it was to even start. That Mexico’s injury crisis had not just deepened further. Ruiz is only 17 matches into his international career for El Tri , yet the central midfielder has firmly established himself as an important cog in Mexico’s setup with his clean passing and defensive cover.

More pertinently, the 25-year-old was part of a young core finally asserting itself on a team that long felt caught between generations and suffered through a lackluster autumn, winning none of their six friendlies against World Cup-bound teams. Related: New bill would bar ICE raids near World Cup matches in US host cities With Ruiz ruled out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, Mexico is now without the services of six players who appeared in the come-from-behind Gold Cup final victory over the United States last summer, including its entire starting midfield. Captain and anchor Edson Álvarez finally had surgery on his long-ailing ankle and is in a race to recover for the big tournament; 17-year-old sensation Gilberto Mora has been sidelined by a sports hernia for two months now.

Also out are forwards Alexis Vega and Santi Giménez (with knee and ankle injuries, respectively). The latter is the only one of this half dozen not to start in that final, and the Milan man may well need to be in Mexico’s lineup at the World Cup, given that his rival at striker, Raúl Jiménez, will be 35 by then, and battered by the long Premier League season. Midfielder Luis Chávez started all three of Mexico’s matches at the 2022 World Cup but is a question-mark as well as he concludes his rehab from a torn ACL.