Barcelona defender Sergino Dest was forced off with an injury in the second half of his team’s Europa League round of 16 second leg against Galatasaray in Istanbul on Thursday.
Dest limped off the field grabbing his hamstring in the 56th minute with Barcelona leading 2-1 on the night and by the same scoreline on aggregate.
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The sight of Dest suffering an apparent muscle injury will be of major concern to U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter. Berhalter is due to name his roster for the U.S.’s final three Concacaf World Cup qualifiers at 6:30 p.m. ET on Thursday live, on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
The U.S. are scheduled to take on fierce rivals Mexico at the Estadio Azteca on March 24 before hosting Panama (March 27) and traveling to Costa Rica (March 30) to round out their “Octagonal” campaign. After 11 of the 14 rounds of games, the U.S. (21 pts) sits in second place in the standings, level on points with third-placed Mexico and four points ahead of fourth-placed Panama.
The top three teams will qualify automatically for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with the fourth-placed team facing an intercontinental playoff.
Dest has been a mainstay of late for the U.S., starting in six qualifiers during this cycle.
The injury is also bad timing for Barcelona, coming just three days before they take on Real Madrid in El Clasico (4 p.m. ET; stream LIVE on ESPN+),
