MARIETTA, Ga. — Antonee Robinson’s name has been penciled into the USMNT’s starting XI for this World Cup for just about the entire cycle.
Everywhere, that is, except his own mind.
That’s not a case of Robinson being superstitious. Doubt started to creep in for him this season due to a knee injury that required surgery last spring and wasn’t getting better.
He missed national team camps in September and November; he came in October, but couldn’t play.
Assuming he gets on the field in a pair of friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in Atlanta, the former Saturday afternoon, it will be Robinson’s first game action wearing the stars and stripes since a pair of friendlies in October 2024.
“There was a lot of concern for me, to be honest,” Robinson said Friday before the USMNT trained at Atlanta United’s facility. “Obviously, I had surgery on the knee. The rehab didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped so even when I came back, I was trying to train and play, I still wasn’t quite ready.”
Robinson, to be clear, is fine now. He’s played in three of the past four games for Fulham, his club in the Premier League, two of those for the full 90 minutes. There’s no reason to assume he won’t be playing for the U.S. this window.
“Fully fit at the moment,” he said. “Fully available for all games, all training.”
That time rehabbing, though, and the start-stop nature of it — surgery in May, missing one game in September, then having to lay off from mid-October through mid-December — took its toll.
Robinson even said he looked for “outside help” in his rehab.
“Different opinions on how I could change up what I was doing to get my physical condition a lot better,” he said. “I feel like that helps, and then a series of injections and things like that to try and let it heal. The club’s been really good at managing my load early in the year, responding well to when I got back and played a lot of games quickly to then needing to take a bit of a breather from then as well. So a variety of things have contributed.”
There’s a logical spot for Robinson in Mauricio Pochettino’s lineup at the left wingback in his preferred 3-4-3 formation. The 28-year-old, who attained U.S. eligibility because his father lived in White Plains and became a citizen, started every game of the 2022 World Cup and has long been a fixture in Fulham’s lineup.
Still, it’s been a long time since Robinson has suited up for the national team, and plenty around the program has changed. He says he hasn’t missed a beat — being around the program in October was valuable, even without playing time.
“This camp, fitting back in, you get [told] pretty quickly if you’re not doing the right things in training, whether that’s a little bit of intensity sometimes or anything like that. It’s been pretty easy to pick up,” Robinson said. “I feel like I’ve not missed any time at all being back with the guys, to be honest with you.”
It’s a different thing, though, feeling and thinking as opposed to performing. That is where the next few days will be so important for Robinson.
“Realistically, I’ve not played a U.S. game for over a year-and-a-half now. There was no certainty I was gonna be fit and available and make it,” Robinson said. “It just seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel. But thankfully, I feel like I’m past that point now.
“It’s really exciting to be back with the boys and kind of my last opportunity before the summer with the team and show I can still contribute to the national team and do well. Hoping I get the chance.”
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