Landon Donovan to miss USMNT qualifiers, reports Grant Wahl

Landon Donovan has returned from his soccer sabbatical and is playing a key role for the LA Galaxy, but he hasn't done enough to get back into the good graces of Jürgen Klinsmann. According to a report by Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl, Klinsmann will not call Donovan into his squad for the United States' June World Cup qualifying matches.

As Wahl notes, national team camp starts on May 21. A number of European-based players may not join until later in the month. Klinsmann has not yet named his squad for the three qualifiers and two pre-qualifying friendly matches, but an announcement is expected later this week.

Since returning to the Galaxy, Donovan has made four starts and one substitute appearance, tallying one goal and one assist. He appears to have shaken off some early rust after sitting out the preseason and the Galaxy's first month of play, but still hasn't approached his previous MVP-caliber form.

In Donovan's absence, Klinsmann has shuffled his wide players and moved players out of position, most notably playing striker Eddie Johnson on the left wing for the first time in his career. Graham Zusi, who appears to be the long-term replacement for Donovan in the U.S. team, has been one of the team's best players since assuming a starting role and has had a dominant start to the year for Sporting Kansas City.

The United States doesn't have a lot of depth on the wings or in attacking midfield roles, so Donovan could almost certainly help the team if in top form, but it seems like Klinsmann believes Donovan is currently far from that.