Homecoming in Edmonton
Alphonso Davies slipped back into his hometown on Sunday night, arriving in Edmonton as the Canadian national team gathered for a pre‑World Cup friendly against Uzbekistan at Commonwealth Stadium on Monday. He got a light jog in before the match, testing the hamstring that had forced him to miss the training camp in Charlotte, N.C., the previous week.
He jogged while his teammates played, a reminder that even captains sometimes watch from the side.
The list looks clean on paper; the hard part is everything that happens after it is printed.
Canada beat Uzbekistan 2‑0 in that friendly, giving the squad a win heading into the World Cup.
Recovery plan and expectations
Coach Jesse Marsch said Davies would continue the rehabilitation programme set out by Bayern Munich, with the Canadian medical staff checking his progress daily. The staff are in no hurry to push him back, aware that another setback would be costly ahead of the tournament.
“Obviously when the games get started, he’ll want to play,” Marsch said. “What we don’t want is to put him in a situation where he could suffer again and be vulnerable again.”
Davies has 58 caps for Canada, scoring 15 goals and adding 17 assists. His most celebrated strike came in November 2022, when he scored Canada’s first‑ever World Cup goal in a group‑stage loss to Croatia. A string of injuries, including a torn anterior cruciate ligament, has kept him from playing for Canada since March 2025, raising questions about whether he would be fit for the upcoming World Cup.
World Cup countdown
Canada open the World Cup in Toronto against Bosnia‑Herzegovina on June 12. Asked whether he hoped to be ready for that game, Davies said it was too soon to tell.
“It all depends on how the rehab goes,” he said. “We just have to see how I feel day by day.”
If he gets the green light, the coaching staff expect to give him just a few minutes in the first match, building up from there.