Cameron Carter-Vickers achilles injury to end Celtic season, status for USMNT World Cup squad 'very doubtful'

Center back Cameron Carter-Vickers will miss the rest of Celtic's season with a long-term achilles injury, likely dashing any possible hopes of making the U.S. men's national team's roster for next summer's World Cup on home soil.

Carter-Vickers sustained the achilles injury during Celtic's 2-1 win over Sturm Graz in the UEFA Europa League last month, an injury that was expected to keep him out until March. Celtic interim manager Martin O'Neill, though, confirmed on Friday that the 27-year-old will not play again this season.

"We will not see him," O'Neill said before Saturday's match at St. Mirren. "I think it might be April before he's even on grass. Funnily enough, I did ask him yesterday, did he think he would be ready for the World Cup? And he said he thought that would be very doubtful."

With little more than six months to go until the USMNT's opening match of the World Cup, Carter-Vickers is the first member of the national team's player pool to face the possibility of missing the tournament with an injury. Though he has not been a fixture of the team since Mauricio Pochettino became the head coach in late 2024, there was a real opportunity for Carter-Vickers to make a case for himself -- Pochettino has recently begun to deploy a back three, a formation change that paved the way for their year-ending five game unbeaten run.

Carter-Vickers was very recently on Pochettino's radar, too, joining the group for October's friendlies against Ecuador and Australia. He did not play in either match, though, and his only minutes under Pochettino came in March's 2-1 defeat to Canada in the Concacaf Nations League third place match, during which he played 90 minutes.

The center back was a member of the USMNT's 2022 World Cup squad, playing 90 minutes in the national team's group stage finale against Iran, which was a 1-0 victory.