After making his FIFA World Cup debut in the Round of 32 against South Africa, Alphonso Davies was expected to be in contention to play against Morocco with Jesse Marsch saying earlier in the week that the Bayern Munich left-back was capable of 30 to 40 minutes.
But there was no sign of him in Canada’s 3-0 loss. Davies was not in the starting XI and wasn’t used in Marsch’s five substitutes.
After the match, Marsch told TSN’s Matt Scianitti that while he had a clean MRI on Friday, he did not feel right ahead of the match and “wasn’t confident in his hamstring.”
Picking up a hamstring injury in Bayern’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain, Davies was unable to feature in the group stage and it became evident as the tournament progressed that if he would play at all, it wouldn’t be anything close to 100 per cent.
“For Alphonso, he’s learning to trust his body,” Marsch said. “As much as he wanted to play and we wanted him to play, it just wasn’t worth risking it.”
With Canada now out of the tournament, Davies’ World Cup consisted of just 15 minutes of game time.
