Canada’s men’s national team is set to take on two friendlies against Ukraine and the Ivory Coast over the weekend, but won’t be able to draw fully on three players from Vancouver Whitecaps FC—something Jesse Marsch has suggested is due to intentional “poisoning” .
Sam Adekugbe, Jayden Nelson and Ali Ahmed, three players from the Whitecaps, entered Canada’s camp in Halifax ill, after their journey to Mexico City with Vancouver, which saw them lose 5–0 in the Concacaf Champions Cup Final to Cruz Azul.
On Thursday, the Whitecaps released a club statement, stating that several team members had suffered gastrointestinal symptoms, which forced the team to cancel multiple training sessions and put their Sunday matchup against Seattle Sounders FC in doubt.
“As a precautionary measure, and in consultation with the club’s medical team, as well as the local infectious disease consultant and Vancouver Coastal Health, the club cancelled training on Wednesday and held a modified individual closed session for cleared players today” the club said.
While it was primarily the players who returned to Vancouver who suffered, with CEO and Sporting Director Axel Schuster suggesting the infection spread on the team charter and occurred after the match, several of the nine who departed for international duty also experienced symptoms.
On Friday, ahead of Canada’s opening match of the Canadian Shield Friendly Tournament against Ukraine, Marsch spoke out on the situation.
"Everyone is healthy and ready to go. The only thing that we had was that the three Vancouver players were poisoned,” Marsch said. “They're better now, they're probably not ready for 90-minute performances. But it's for me, appalling that this is the second year in a row that Concacaf and the powers that be have allowed an MLS team to go down to Mexico for a big final and get poisoned.”
Although the Whitecaps' assumption is that the illness befell them after the match, with Schuster mentioning two meals they had on the way back to Vancouver, it marks the second time in as many years that MLS teams have suffered such a fate.
In 2024, Columbus Crew SC reported an alleged case of food poisoning ahead of their loss to CF Pachuca in the Champions Cup. With that in mind, the Whitecaps consulted with Columbus. They brought their own chef to Mexico for the final, while also taking additional precautions to avoid drinking tap water and other potentially hazardous activities.
“It's ridiculous. Something must be done to protect these environments. Look, I don't have any proof here that this happened, but it's not random,” Marsch added. “It's not random that this has happened two years in a row. If I were the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Columbus Crew, or MLS, I would be absolutely angry that this has been allowed to happen.”
"When all three of them are sick, it's clear. It wasn't just 'ah, I don't feel so great'. There was talk of whether it was an infectious virus, but in the end, I don't want to speak, but I think the results are that it was food poisoning."
