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Mauricio Pochettino hailed Diego Luna’s ‘big balls’ after the USMNT star continued to play after suffering a horrific broken nose on Wednesday night.
Luna, who plays his club soccer with Real Salt Lake in MLS, was struck in the face by an elbow during the first half of the 3-0 friendly win over Costa Rica.
He was bleeding heavily from the nose and required urgent medical attention but, somehow, managed to return to the field after having cotton shoved up both nostrils.
On his immediate return to the game, Luna provided an assist for Brian White to open the scoring.
Speaking at full time, former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Pochettino hailed Luna’s resilience after he pleaded with his manager to let him carry on.
Luna went to hospital afterwards before taking to Instagram to post a photo of his face, which was full of blood. He wrote: ‘Thank you everyone for the messages. I’m all good.’
Mauricio Pochettino hailed Diego Luna’s ‘big balls’ after he played on with a broken nose
Luna was struck in the face by an elbow during the first half of the 3-0 win over Costa Rica
Luna went to hospital afterwards before taking to Instagram to post a photo of his bloodied face
White and Caden Clark each scored their first international goals as Pochettino‘s team dominated throughout in Orlando.
White scored in the 21st minute and Clark in 77th before Patrick Agyemang added a goal in the 90th after also scoring in his debut Saturday against Venezuela.
The match completed the January camp for Pochettino, who has won five of his six games since taking over in October.
With the European players not called in for this international window, this was a perfect time for him to evaluate the talent in MLS before the marquee players are summoned for the major tournaments of 2025: the CONCACAF Nations League semifinal against Panama on March 20 and the CONCACAF Gold Cup in June and July.