USMNT's Patrick Agyemang suffers serious Achilles injury, will miss World Cup

Steven GoffTue, April 7, 2026 at 1:14 PM UTC

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Patrick Agyemang suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury, Derby County announced Tuesday, ending his first season in England and dashing his U.S. World Cup hopes two months before the tournament.

The 6-foot-4 forward will undergo further evaluation and remain sidelined indefinitely, the English Championship club said.

“The club will provide Patrick with the highest level of medical care and rehabilitation throughout his recovery,” the club said. “Everyone at Derby County is fully behind Patrick at this difficult time and will continue to support him every step of the way.”

Derby County's Patrick Agyemang is helped on to a stretcher on Monday, April 6, 2026. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images) (Mike Egerton - PA Images via Getty Images)

Derby confirmed “Patrick will unfortunately miss this summer’s FIFA World Cup. At this stage it would be wrong to put a timeline on his recovery. Further updates will be communicated in due course.”

A regular starter for Derby since early last fall, the former Charlotte FC standout recorded 10 goals and three assists in 37 league matches (33 starts). He is second on the team in goals, first in scoring production (13) and fourth in minutes played.

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After finishing in 19th place last season, Derby is eighth — one point back in the race for a promotion playoff berth with five matches left.

Although the 25-year-old Connecticut native was not certain of making the World Cup squad, he was among four strikers competing for probably three roster slots. Since debuting in January 2025, he has scored six goals in 14 appearances. In the March camp, he came off the bench to score a late goal in the 5-2 loss to Belgium and played the second half of the 2-0 loss to Portugal.

Monaco’s Folarin Balogun (16 goals in all club competitions) is Mauricio Pochettino’s top striker, with Coventry City’s Haji Wright (17) and PSV Eindhoven’s Ricardo Pepi (13) in contention.

Agyemang is the second U.S. player ruled out of World Cup contention with an Achilles tendon injury. Center back Cameron Carter-Vickers, a member of the 2022 squad, suffered such an injury in October and hasn’t played since.

Pochettino will name his 26-man World Cup squad on May 26.

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Source: “AOL Sports”