Antonee Robinson Is Back With U.S. After Knee Surgery but ‘Not 100% Myself Yet’

Antonee Robinson still isn’t at full strength as he returns to the U.S. national team for the first time in 11 months.

A 28-year-old left back, Robinson had right knee surgery on May 27, two days after Fulham’s Premier League finale.

“Still not quite back to feeling 100% on it as I was year ago, kind of before the injury first happened. But getting there slowly,” he said Wednesday, two days before the Americans’ friendly against Ecuador. “There hasn’t really been a specific conversation about how many minutes I’m going to play this trip, if any.”

Preparing for next year’s World Cup, the U.S. also plays Australia on Tuesday at Commerce City, Colorado.

Robinson has four goals in 50 international appearances, starting all four U.S. matches at the 2022 World Cup.

He started 35 of Fulham’s 38 Premier League games last season but has been limited to three substitute appearances in the Cottagers’ first seven league games this season. He went the distance in a League Cup match against fourth-tier Cambridge United on Sept. 23.

Robinson said the injury occurred last October, when the U.S. played friendlies against Panama and Mexico.

“I basically got dead leg on the top of my knee, on my quadricep tendon, which slightly split my tendon open and that bleeding led to calcification and stuff and I developed a bit of tendinopathy in my knee,” he said.

“It was pretty painful from probably November onwards for the rest of the duration of the season and I was managing my load, trying to make sure I could play games and things like that,” he added. “And then after seeing various specialists and surgeons, the decision was that I probably wasn’t going to get over the other side of it unless I had surgery to scrape out the calcification that was in my tendon and kind of clean the area out.”

Robinson’s recovery took 11-12 weeks before he could resume full training.

“I’m getting there and doing everything I can on and off the pitch to make sure I can stay fit and get back to where I was,” Robinson said. “Obviously the gaffer knows that I’m not 100% myself yet, but even if that’s the case, he still sees me as a useful tool at some point.”

Fulham manager Marco Silva has been starting Ryan Sessegnon at left back.

“Sess has been doing really well,” Robinson said, “so even when I get back to full fitness it’s going to be difficult for me to get my place back in the team, so I’m just going to have to try and raise my level as high as I can and be ready to be called upon when needed.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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