USMNT striker Folarin Balogun is expected to be sidelined for around two months with a dislocated shoulder.
Balogun dislocated his left shoulder during AS Monaco’s victory over Rennes on October 5 and subsequently withdrew from the U.S. squad for October’s international fixtures.
The injury means the 23-year-old is set to miss out on both legs of the U.S.’s Concacaf Nations League quarter-final against Jamaica in November.
It is also set to rule him out of Monaco’s next three Champions League fixtures against Red Star Belgrade, Bologna and Benfica, and leaves him a doubt ahead of his side’s visit to former club Arsenal in matchday six of the ‘league phase’ on December 11.
Monaco are top of Ligue 1 seven games into the 2024-25 season but could be without Balogun for a run of fixtures that includes the visit of Lille on Friday, a trip to third-place Marseille on December 1 and an away fixture against his former side Reims on December 16.
The striker missed Mauricio Pochettino’s first camp in charge of the U.S. this month, which produced a victory over Panama and a defeat to Mexico. Norwich striker Josh Sargent was selected to lead the line in both fixtures in Balogun’s absence.
Johnny Cardoso and Tim Weah also withdrew from Pochettino’s squad ahead of October’s fixtures through injury, while Christian Pulisic returned to AC Milan before the Mexico fixture for load management and Marlon Fossey, Weston McKennie, Ricardo Pepi and Zack Steffen returned to their clubs for assessment after sustaining minor injuries.
Balogun scored the winning goal during Monaco’s 2-1 win over Rennes this month but was forced off on 63 minutes after sustaining the shoulder injury. He has scored three goals in six Ligue 1 appearances for Monaco this season and has a goal in each of his last three league outings.
GO DEEPER
Pochettino’s USMNT loss to Mexico shows there’s more work to be done
(Jean-Francois Monier/AFP via Getty Images)
