Alphonso Davies says injury recovery is going well and he’s good to go at World Cup

By The Canadian Press on November 20, 2022.

UMM ÅžALÄ€L “˜ALÄª, Qatar – Alphonso Davies says he is good to go Wednesday for Canada’s World Cup opener despite a hamstring strain suffered playing for Bayern Munich.

“I’m ready to start,” he told TSN in an interview..

“When I picked up the injury at first I was devastated, not just for me, but for the team that I was playing on at the time and obviously the World Cup,” he added. “But luckily it wasn’t too bad of an injury and now we’re still in recovery, we’re still trying to heal. And yeah, it’s going well, and I’m just happy to be here and happy to represent my country.”

Davies arrived in Qatar on Friday evening after undergoing treatment back at Bayern Munich for the injury sustained Nov. 6 in a Bundesliga game at Hertha Berlin.

In speaking to reporters Saturday, Canada coach John Herdman was not quite as positive as Davies about his young star’s participation Wednesday

Herdman said that while Davies was able to take part in some of the contact work in training, “he’s still building towards hitting his top speed.”

“He hasn’t hit that top speed yet and when you have hamstring injuries that’s always the key moment. That’s when the hamstring is pushed to its limits.”

Davies was more upbeat.

“I know they wouldn’t put me on the pitch if it was, you know, 50-50. I think they 100 per cent knew that I’ll be able to recover well and be able to play this tournament.”

Davies took part in the brief portions of the training session open to media on Saturday and Sunday