Marsch says Alphonso Davies should play for Canada at World Cup

Canada’s World Cup plans still run through Alphonso Davies, even with a left hamstring injury threatening to keep the captain out of the opener in Toronto. Jesse Marsch said Canada expects Davies to play at some point in the tournament, a reminder that one player’s health can shape the ceiling of a national team built to compete on home soil.

The timing is tight. Davies suffered the injury on May 6 in Bayern Munich’s Champions League semifinal second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern said two days later that he would be out for several weeks. Canada Soccer has kept him in the picture anyway, naming him to a 32-player training camp roster that began May 25 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and runs through May 29.

That camp is the next checkpoint in a compressed tournament calendar. Canada Soccer will trim the group to 26 players after the Charlotte session, and Marsch will announce the official FIFA World Cup 2026 roster in a primetime television special on May 29 at 7:00 p.m. ET, 4:00 p.m. PT, on TSN, CTV, Crave and RDS. Davies is expected to continue rehabbing with Bayern before joining the national team later in the month, which leaves Canada preparing for the possibility that its most important defender and attacker from the back line will not be available when the tournament begins.

Canada opens its third World Cup campaign on June 12 in Toronto against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the first men’s FIFA World Cup match ever played on Canadian soil. Toronto Stadium will host six matches, making the venue a focal point for the country’s largest soccer event and a measuring stick for how Canada handles pressure before a domestic crowd.

Davies’ status matters because Canada named him captain in 2024 and has long treated him as one of the program’s defining players. His absence for the opener would force tactical adjustment, whether that means shifting the back line, altering the left flank or asking others to cover the width and recovery speed he usually provides. It would also test Marsch’s willingness to protect long-term fitness over short-term certainty.

For Canada, the larger calculation is clear. Pushing Davies too early could risk the rest of the tournament; waiting for him could preserve the player most capable of lifting the team’s level when the margin gets smallest.