Brek Shea out of USA World Cup qualifier, Landon Donovan might miss too

Brek Shea will miss the United States' World Cup qualifiers against Antigua and Barbuda, and Landon Donovan might, too. The two are battling injuries, with Shea struggling with a series of knocks for weeks, while Donovan injured his knee in the LA Galaxy's loss on Saturday night.

According to Ives Galarcep Shea will miss the qualifiers through injury. Shea first injured himself in Vancouver, when he suffered a turf toe injury. That toe then caused several other injuries to his left leg. Recently, that toe has added a hip flexor and back to its list of body parts injured. Now he is struggled just to play and will not be available to Jurgen Klinsmann.

Donovan was injured late in Saturday night's match, landing hard on his left knee. Not long after, he was substituted off before limping to the locker room. When speaking to reporters after the match he said that his status for the U.S. match was "TBD" [to be determined], that he would undergo tests on Sunday or Monday and that the severity of the injury was unknown.

We have no idea. We have to get it worked out. It didn't feel good.

Losing Shea is already a blow to Klinsmann's width-challenged squad and Donovan may add to the team's struggles. Toss in a rib injury that kept DaMarcus Beasley out this weekend and Josh Gatt's continued injury struggles and Klinsmann will be hard-pressed to find many fully fit non-central midfielders to choose from.

With so many players out, Klinsmann might have to take some chances. Graham Zusi seems to be a likely choice and Herculez Gomez could play as a winger, but beyond that it is more dicey.

Joe Corona might be forced into action. He has played very well for Xolos, but has not been given much of a chance at the international level. Even Edgar Castillo as a winger could be an option. Then there are nightmares that of Danny Williams on the right and Jose Francisco Torres on the left that could terrorize the U.S. again.

The U.S. needs to turn in two strong performances and take maximum points against Antigua and Barbuda and Guatemala if they want a place in the final round of qualifying. They head into the final two matches level with Jamaica and Guatemala on seven points and only two of the three can advance.