Mauricio Pochettino is finding out that Gio Reyna’s injury problems are not going away anytime soon
Just weeks into his tenure as USMNT manager, Mauricio Pochettino has already been handed a headache.
Attacking midfielder Gio Reyna has suffered a setback in his recovery from a groin injury.
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Reyna sustained the initial injury while training with the national team last month and his club side Borussia Dortmund have now announced a ‘setback’ which will likely keep him out until at least the end of the November international break.
The 21-year-old has only managed nine minutes for Dortmund this season, failing to appear since his side’s opening game of the Bundesliga campaign. Last season - for Dortmund and then on loan with Nottingham Forest - Reyna managed just three total league starts, injuries again slowing him down.
It’s become a sadly familiar story for Reyna who has struggled to reach his potential thus far - in his admittedly still young career - due to repeated injury troubles.
He has now missed 54 games for Borussia Dortmund through injury and illness with that number only set to rise in the coming weeks.
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Here, talkSPORT takes a look back at the problems that have plagued Reyna…
The First Frustrating Blows
Following a breakthrough campaign in the Bundesliga, Reyna racked up 32 league appearances in 2020/21. But the frustrations started shortly after.
A hamstring injury forced Reyna off during a September 2021 World Cup qualifier against El Salvador, something that ended up costing him more than five months of action.
Setbacks and Struggles
Finally returning for his club team in early February of 2022, Reyna lasted just 30 minutes. Many Americans will remember the heartbreaking scenes as Reyna departed the pitch in tears 177 days after his previous start for Borussia Dortmund.
It was a cruel blow for a player who had already missed much of the season with the same injury. He was only absent for one game with the setback but his return to the pitch this time only lasted a further two starts.
On the second of those, Reyna was forced off in the sixth minute. This time the diagnosis was muscular and tendon issues, ruling him out for the rest of the season.
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Misfortune in Las Vegas
Reyna recovered from the lost 2021/22 season to make 22 Bundesliga appearances for Dortmund the following year, scoring seven goals in the process - the most he’s managed in one campaign.
That summer, Reyna was part of the US squad aiming to defend their Concacaf Nations League title with the final at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas against Canada.
Reyna was one of the stars of the show, supplying two first-half assists to put his country on their way to victory. Unfortunately, his promising display was curtailed at half-time, leaving with what was initially described as a calf injury but later diagnosed to be a hairline fracture in his leg.
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Another tough recovery process followed, three months away from the pitch this time around.
Fit but…not Firing
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Starting the season injured and without the preseason to prepare alongside his teammates at Borussia Dortmund, Reyna battled on the periphery of the squad following his return from the aforementioned leg fracture.
He managed just two starts in all competitions by the end of January and with Jadon Sancho arriving at Dortmund on loan, Reyna was deemed surplus to requirements. In yet another frustrating twist in what has been a frustrating career thus far, Reyna opted for a loan move to Nottingham Forest.
A team already armed with Morgan Gibbs-White, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Anthony Elanga provided Reyna with limited opportunities to adapt to life in England. 230 Premier League minutes is all that followed in the 16 games during Reyna’s spell at the City Ground, failing to get on the pitch in each of the final three matches of the season.
Sadly the Same
Reyna played a relatively major role in the US’s disastrous Copa America group stage elimination, starting all three matches but playing the full game just once.
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Still, there was enough to be optimistic about as he headed back to Dortmund following the conclusion of his loan to Forest. While you could ask questions of his form, at least he was finally fully fit.
That lasted just a few weeks before he suffered the groin injury that’s currently plaguing him while training with the US ahead of their September friendlies against Canada and New Zealand.
He missed those two matches and will now be absent until at least after the November international break.
What’s next?
In all of this discussion, it’s important to remember one hugely important fact: Reyna is still only 21-years-old.
It’s easy to forget that at times considering he broke onto the scene as a 17-year-old, beating Christian Pulisic’s record for youngest American to make a Bundesliga appearance.
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Reyna still has time. Tons of it. And any conversation around his relative failures so far need to keep that caveat in mind. For Pochettino and the US national team, the goal is and has to be World Cup 2026.
If the US are truly going to ruffle the feathers of the world’s elite on home soil in two years time, then they will need Reyna not only fit but back to his best. While Reyna and US fans will naturally be impatient, the long-term timeline needs to be paramount.
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The first step is getting back on the pitch, no matter how long that takes. The second step is staying there. And finally, the third step is building up the kind of form that made Reyna such a promising prodigy in the first place.
Pochettino can’t magically cure him but he’s likely the right kind of manager for Reyna: patient and with a track record of working with young players. Pochettino understands growing pains and everyone associated with the USMNT will be hoping he can be the one to truly unlock Reyna’s talent - ideally on a regular basis.