Jesse Marsch thought he had another vital piece back in the build for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Yet, just two games after returning from a six-month absence and days before reporting for the No. 26-ranked Canadian men’s national team’s October friendlies against No. 25 Australia and No. 17 Colombia, star center back Moïse Bombito suffered a fractured tibia while playing for Nice.
The 25-year-old will have surgery to place a rod in his leg for stabilization and is expected to be out between four and five months.
For Canada, it’s a massive blow—losing one of the world’s fastest central defenders and a player who has arguably proven himself as the most important in the squad, since rising from MLS to shining in France.
However, it’s also a unifying factor and a testament to the depth that the Canadian squad has built, instantly turning to 19-year-old Luc De Fougerolles—a standout in recent camps and in his first professional season with Belgium’s Dender.
“We’re just so disappointed… he had worked really hard to get himself back into playing again and obviously, we were really excited, because he's such a big piece of everything we do,” Marsch told reporters in Montreal, where Bombito was expected to play a key role in front of his hometown crowd.
“Moïse is an incredible person, the way he handles it. You reach out to him to console him, and at the end of it, you almost feel like he’s consoling you, because of his positive energy and his belief in himself.”
