Landon Donovan suggested Ricardo Pepi is partially to blame for his broken forearm, claiming the PSV striker looked like an ‘old man’ on the play in which he suffered the injury.
Pepi landed awkwardly on his left arm after scoring from close range in PSV’s 5-1 win over Excelsior on Saturday.
The U.S. men’s national team forward was in serious pain, with replays showing his arm bending backwards in painful fashion.
On his ‘Unfiltered Soccer’ show, USMNT legend Donovan said that while he had sympathy for Pepi, he also felt the striker could have done better to prevent injury on the incident.
‘The way he fell was really interesting,’ Donovan said. ‘It didn’t seem seem athletic. It was bizarre. He just fell like an old man would fall in a Sunday League game. It was like, ungraceful, un-athletic.
‘I don’t know if his foot got caught or something, so I’m going to give him some grace there.’
Donovan suggested that Pepi’s fall could have been the result of not playing a variety of sports growing up.
‘If I’m wrong, tell me I’m wrong, but because you only played one sport, you’ve never slid into second base, or you’ve never been trying to catch a football and you fall and brace your arm, or you’ve never fallen on a basketball court. It just felt bizarre.’
Pepi is now in danger of missing the USMNT’s friendlies against Portugal and Belgium in late March, the team’s final two matches before Mauricio Pochettino names his World Cup roster.
It has been a trying period on the injury front for Pepi, who suffered a serious knee injury last January, limiting him to just one USMNT appearance in 2025.
With the 23-year-old’s lack of USMNT playing time, Donovan suggested he could be on the outside looking in for a World Cup roster spot.
‘I wish him the absolute best, speedy recovery,’ Donovan said. ‘But right now we talk about him, but he’s not really a national team player.’
