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LOS ANGELES — Chris Richards is off the injured list.The center back is "available to be selected" for the U.S. men's national team's World Cup opener against Paraguay on Friday, June 12, manager Mauricio Pochettino said. Whether he plays, or when, is still to be determined."We’ll decide whether he starts from the beginning of the game or he starts on the bench," Pochettino said during a June 11 news conference.Richards has not played in a game since tearing two ligaments in his left ankle during a Premier League match for Crystal Palace on May 17. He missed both of the USMNT's friendlies ahead of the World Cup.But Richards was cleared for full training with the USMNT on Monday, June 8. He said Wednesday, June 10, that he was ready to go."If I'm making myself available, they can trust me to play at 100%," Richards said."Every time they've asked me, I told them I'm good," Richards added. "Even when I first got into camp, I told them I'm good. So now, I think they've seen the progression over the last few weeks."Richards is one of the players the USMNT can least afford to be without, a locked-in starter at a position where the team has very little depth. Though Pochettino had said earlier that Richards' recovery was slower than he and his staff initially expected, he praised the USMNT's medical staff for getting him back on the pitch."They worked really hard to recover Chris and other players who arrived with minor things," Pochettino said. "It’s a really good feeling to have 26 players at a high level to be selected."
