By Canadian Press

Alphonso Davies could miss Canada game against French Guiana in Vancouver

Mar 18, 2019 | 3:10 PM

Canada will be without injured captain Scott Arfield and veteran Will Johnson and is waiting word on whether teenage phenom Alphonso Davies will also miss out on Sunday’s game against French Guiana in CONCACAF Nations League qualifying play.

Arfield has been nursing a calf strain with Glasgow Rangers while Johnson is in the MLS concussion protocol after having to leave Orlando City’s loss Saturday to Montreal.

Davies, 18, may have injured himself Sunday celebrating his first goal for Bayern Munich. Hoping he may still be available, the Canadian team is awaiting more information from his German club.

But the news doesn’t look good. Canada coach John Herdman says Davies “felt something” while celebrating his goal in Bayern’s record-setting 6-0 rout of Mainz.

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In the wake of the injuries, Herdman has called up Toronto FC midfielders Jay Chapman and Liam Fraser and Orlando defender Kamal Miller for the game at B.C. Place Stadium. It’s the first senior call-up for Miller, a 21-year-old defender taken 27th overall in the 2019 SuperDraft. 

The Vancouver game was slated to serve as a hero’s return for Davies, especially in the wake of his weekend goal.

Davies, an attacking midfielder with nine caps for Canada, joined Bayern from the Vancouver Whitecaps in a then-MLS-record US$22-million transfer deal that should see him play for the German side through 2023. The deal was consummated in July but Davies closed out the MLS season before joining Bayern in January.

Canada is ranked 79th in the world while French Guiana is unranked since it is not a member of FIFA.

At stake Sunday is a place in the top tier of the CONCACAF Nations League and a berth in the 2019 Gold Cup.

Canada is one of six teams with a 3-0-0 record.

Canada stands third in the 34-team standings with a goals difference of plus-14. Curacao (plus-21) tops the table ahead of Haiti (plus-16). Cuba (plus-14, but has played two home games to Canada’s one) is fourth, followed by Jamaica (plus-11) and Martinique (plus-6),

French Guiana (2-1-0) stands 12th. The four-game qualifying round sets the stage for a three-tier competition, complete with promotion and relegation, that kicks off in the fall of 2019 in the confederation covering North and Central America and the Caribbean.

The top six teams out of qualifying will join Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, the U.S., and Trinidad and Tobago in the top-tier CONCACAF Nations League A. Those six countries skipped qualifying by virtue of reaching the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.

Those six will also join the top 10 teams from Nations League qualifying at the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which increases to 16 teams from 12. That will motivate French Guiana, which has made the regional championship just once.

Canada defeated French Guiana 4-2 in their only previous meeting, at the 2017 Gold Cup. A 16-year-old Davies scored his first two international goals in the win.

The Canadians opened the Nations League qualifying round with an 8-0 win over the U.S. Virgin Islands, in a game played in Bradenton, Fla., before blanking visiting Dominica 5-0 and winning 1-0 at St Kitts & Nevis.

French Guiana won 5-0 at Anguilla, lost 1-0 at home to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and beat visiting Guyana 1-0.

Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press