As Canada's Alphonso Davies continues to work his way back from a hamstring injury, reports vary on whether the star defender will be able to make his 2026 World Cup debut on Thursday in Vancouver.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, the first international sports spectacle staged in Vancouver, Roger Bannister was the star attraction. He had, several months earlier, forged a new physical frontier: sprinting a mile in less than four minutes.
News reporting edged up against the fanatic ahead of the race. Bannister would face rival John Landy, who had run under four minutes soon after Bannister. Sports Illustrated’s debut issue described the hype as the most “universally contemplated foot race of all time.”
Bannister tried to duck attention and trained in private. The public fever did not abate. “Miracle Miler sick with cold” trumpeted one local front page, writing about Bannister’s mild cough.
This week, as Canada readies for Qatar in a crucial World Cup match here on Thursday, the man who garners everyone’s attention is standing in plain sight. It does nothing to quell the fever.
Alphonso Davies, 25, is the best soccer player to ever emerge from this country and was last seen on the pitch in early May, in a Champions League semi-final playing for Bayern Munich when he hurt his left hamstring. He had hurt his right hamstring earlier in the Champions League in March and that same right hamstring in Bundesliga play in February.
Buchanan hopes to help Canadian offensive effort against Qatar
Bayern initially predicted the latest injury would sideline Davies “several weeks.”
Several is one of those vague words. More than two, fewer than many. It’s been six weeks since that Champions League semi-final.
It sparked a will-he-play-or-won’t-he-play World Cup drama whose resolution remains a mystery and whose heat is undiminished. In early June, Davies on a podcast said he couldn’t play in Canada’s opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina. “It hurts me to say it,” he said and underlined the reality that recovery from a hamstring injury cannot be rushed.
But he somewhat walked it back the next day after training in Montreal. “Anything is possible in life,” he said. To no one’s surprise he did not play against Bosnia last Friday.
Davies went from ruling himself out ahead of last week's World Cup opener, to leaving the door open on his ability to play. A week later, Canadian fans wait to see if the team's top player will be in the lineup for its second game.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Last week, when asked about playing any World Cup games, Davies told TSN maybe yes maybe no. This week CBC reported its prediction Davies “almost certainly” won’t play against Qatar. The cover of the Vancouver Province on Tuesday said he was “one step closer to return” and “almost back to full health.”
On Monday, Davies was the only player on Canada’s 26-man World Cup squad who didn’t participate in full practice. He existed in a netherworld dubbed “return to play.” The Athletic reported Davies in fact dabbled in at least part of Monday’s main practice.
In glimpses this week, he’s looked reasonably spry before and after practice. This, however, is not a medical assessment, regardless of how badly Canada might need him and how much he personally wants to play in a World Cup at home, in a city where he made his professional debut a decade ago for the Whitecaps in MLS at the age of 15.
The last time Canada arguably rushed Davies on to the field when he might not have been fully ready, in early 2025, he blew his ACL. That decision more than mildly displeased his employer in Munich. Questions on an e-mail dispatched to Bayern this week asking for the club’s views on Davies’s latest recovery went unanswered.
On Tuesday morning, ahead of practice, the PR man for Canada’s men’s team, John Lobban, said he had no specifics to add of Davies’s status. Mildly prodded for a bit more information, Lobban said: “I’ve been very transparent about our injuries. Given the stakes right now, I want to be a little less transparent.”
Gary Mason: The World Cup defies a growing anti-immigrant backlash
One wag among the assembled reporters wondered aloud: “Is anybody from Qatar here?”
Seemingly no spies lurked at the training grounds at the University of British Columbia. The one drone spotted belonged to Canada’s squad. And let’s presume the Qatar squad, currently based near Los Angeles and in Vancouver on Wednesday, have access to the internet and, if need be, Google Translate.
The fact is Canada can score a few goals and beat Qatar without Davies and if several more days rest is all that’s necessary, he’ll be more valuable next week fully fit against Switzerland in the match that could likely decide the winner of Group B. But Qatar, while billed as one of the weakest teams in the World Cup, didn’t allow a goal from open play when it tied group favourite Switzerland 1-1 last Saturday, after Canada tied Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-1.
Behind the scenes, Davies is fully present. He gave a short and stirring pregame speech in Toronto before Bosnia last Friday. He’s at all the meetings, meals, and the like.
Unfortunately for Canada supporters, this is the closest they've come to seeing Davies in uniform. His status for Thursday's match against Qatar remained up in the air on Tuesday.Francois Nel/Getty Images
“He’s been very serious about this tournament,” said midfielder Stephen Eustáquio on Tuesday.
On Davies’s convalescence, Eustáquio of course could only speak in generalities.
“He has to be 100 per cent,” said Eustáquio, team captain in the absence of Davies. “Hopefully he can get back as quick as possible.”
Defender Alistair Johnston likewise chose polite evasion on Tuesday on the question of the country’s star.
“If we get Phonzie back, that’s obviously, you know, ideal,” Johnston said.
But as all elite athletes know, hamstrings once injured are among the more delicate of muscles. They do not respond kindly to shocks, such as launching into a full sprint from a standstill during a massive World Cup game in front of more than 50,000 fans in red and white at BC Place on Thursday.
Johnston last November had surgery on his right hamstring, after hurting it again after hurting it several months before in a Champions League game for Celtic. This April he had a setback training with Canada. It’s a long road back. He played the full game against Bosnia last Friday.
“I know hamstrings,” said Johnston. “They’re the ones that you can’t take shortcuts with.”