CHICAGO — Sergiño Dest was dropped from the U.S. men’s soccer roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup due to fitness concerns, leaving the Americans heading to the tournament with just four players who started in the team’s final match of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“The technical, medical and high performance staffs have done a series of evaluations this week on all the players in camp, and in the case of Sergiño we determined the best decision is for the player to have an individualized training program for the summer so he can focus on being fully recovered and ready to perform next season,” coach Mauricio Pochettino said in a statement released Thursday.
Dest, a starter at outside back, tore an ACL during practice with Dutch club PSV Eindhoven on April 20, 2024, and returned to action March 8 of this year. He appeared in seven matches, including four starts, but didn’t play a full 90 minutes until the season finale on May 18.
John Tolkin was added to the roster and was scheduled to arrive at practice Thursday. Tolkin transferred in January to Holstein Kiel of Germany’s Bundesliga from Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls.
Trying to rebound after flops in last summer’s Copa America tournament and the CONCACAF Nations League in March, the U.S. already was missing Folarin Balogun, Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah, Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Antonee Robinson and Tim Weah.