Landon Donovan will have to miss the United States' upcoming friendlies against Honduras and Ecuador because of a right quadriceps injury. The USA's all-time leading scorer will be replaced on the roster by Edson Buddle, his former LA Galaxy teammate that is now with FC Ingolstadt in the 2.Bundesliga and was on last summer's World Cup team. Buddle was also named to head coach Jurgen Klinsmann's first U.S. team for the Yanks' match against Mexico in August, but he was left off of the team for the team's two friendlies last month.
Donovan's strained quadriceps will be a blow to Klinsmann's plans of rebuilding the U.S. team. He is beginning to run short on matches to change and prepare his team before World Cup qualifying and losing one of the team's best player, even if only for two matches, is a bit of a setback. With his missing the match and Mikkel Diskerud, Alejandro Bedoya and Feeddy Adu being left off the team, Klinsmann won't have many attack-minded midfield options available for the two friendlies.