Malagón breaks down in tears recalling how injury cost him the 2026 World Cup

Some injuries hurt the body, and others hurt the mind. For Luis Ángel Malagón, it was both at once. America's goalkeeper had been playing through the entire buildup to the 2026 World Cup when an Achilles tendon injury knocked him off course right as the tournament was starting to feel close, very close.

Six months have passed since that stroke of bad luck, and Malagón is finally back. He tells the story himself with an honesty that isn't always heard in soccer: there was a stretch when he couldn't even walk, and that, he says, was the hardest thing he's ever had to go through in his career.

I've got that full drive to want to come back, but everything has to be done calmly, and the day I return I'm going to enjoy it so much, because not being able to walk was the hardest thing I've ever gone through in soccerLuis Ángel Malagón

The goalkeeper says he's grateful to everyone who stood by him through the process and that now he's just waiting for the moment to get back to playing for real. So far, he has logged two games off the bench with the First Team, though his real playing time has come with the Under 21 squad. The plan heading into the tour of the United States is for him to reclaim his spot as the starting goalkeeper.

"I saw myself at the World Cup"

What weighs heaviest in cases like this isn't just the physical pain, it's the dream that gets cut short in an instant. Malagón explained it without holding back: the World Cup was just three months away when he got hurt, and he had already pictured himself there, defending the goal. Injuries like this one, he said, force you to start literally from zero, because your body forgets how to walk.

I think it's been one of the hardest moments of my career because you picture yourself in certain scenarios, the World Cup was really close, it was three months away, I saw myself there, obviously being part of it; I think the hardest part of these injuries is that you have to learn to walk again, your body loses all sense of that, it doesn't react, you basically start from zeroLuis Ángel Malagón

And there's a part of the interview that hits even harder. Malagón admitted that during the first month and a half of rehab he cried every single day, that just stepping into the shower was enough for the frustration to completely take over. "Only you know what you're going through," he said, closing with that line so often repeated when something like this happens: everything happens for a reason.

The good news is that his recovery ended up going better than expected. And the first concrete proof of that comes this Thursday: Malagón will start in the friendly against Cruz Azul, in San Diego. That match will also bring another first for America fans, the debuts of defensive reinforcements Santiago Bueno and Santiago Ramos, who will get their first minutes under Guillermo Almada.