The USMNT players that will not be available during the international break
Panama is amongst the so-called ‘Red List’ countries and the Premier League will not let the USMNT players travel during the October international break.
Earlier this month, the Premier League didn’t allow players to travel during the FIFA international break to countries on the so-called ‘Red List’ and they will implement the same rule next month. This will affect the United States men’s national team for the second round of the World Cup qualifiers in CONCACAF.
The players that will not be able to travel
The USMNT will host Jamaica on 7 October and then travel to Panama three days later, a country that is on the ‘Red List’ due to the coronavirus pandemic. This means that Christian Pulisic, Zack Steffen, Ethan Horvath, Josh Sargeant, Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson won't be able to make the trip to the United States next month.
If the situation doesn’t improve in Panama during the coming weeks, then the players mentioned before won’t be allowed to travel to join the national team. This is a problem that the Mexico national team already dealt with last break, when they had to play the opening round without their star striker Raúl Jiménez.
The Mexican international was not given permission by the Premier League side to join the national team for the FIFA international break. Mexico hosted Jamaica on 2 September and won 2-1 and then went on the road for back-to-back games to face Costa Rica and Panama.