CHICAGO — The World Cup is drawing closer and the question of Chris Richards’ status for the biggest competition in U.S. soccer’s history remains unanswered.

Richards, who has been dealing with an ankle injury, won’t be ready to play in Saturday’s match against Germany, USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino said.

That match is the last tuneup for the Americans before they open the World Cup on June 12 against Paraguay with the eyes of the nation watching.

“Today he’s training, but evolution is good, but he’s still not ready to compete and to play,” Pochettino said. “I think we have, after the game, the opportunity in the next few days to assess him and see his ankle, and make a decision. At the moment, he’s doing recovery.”

Richards trained with the team during the 15 minutes of practice open to reporters, a notable step forward, and Pochettino later said that if it was the World Cup final, perhaps he could play.

Answering a question in Spanish, though, he expressed frustration that Richards’ recovery timeline was longer than U.S. Soccer believed it would be when he was named to the roster, and that “we have to make a decision.”

When the roster was decided, Pochettino said, the federation believed Richards could play for Crystal Palace in the UEFA Conference League final May 27.

Though he was on the squad as a substitute for that game, he didn’t make it onto the field.

“The timelines were lengthening and it angers me a bit. I’m not happy,” Pochettino said. “Because we know Chris Richards is an important player, of course we all know it, but also when I was saying based on the information that we used, sometimes there wasn’t clarity.

“In the end, we hope that Chris can be there. But in the end, we’re gonna find ourselves who’s coming without competing [for a month] and after, we have to make a decision if he’s in form or not. And there’s not a lot of time in the World Cup.

“The information wasn’t the information that we should use to make the best decision.”

Though FIFA’s deadline to submit rosters for the World Cup already has passed, injury replacements are allowed for up to 24 hours before the first match.

In reality, though, there’s no replacing what Richards brings at a position where the USMNT has little depth.

Against Senegal last weekend without Richards, Pochettino went with a back three of Tim Ream, Mark McKenzie and Alex Freeman, from left to right.

Pochettino said the USMNT has “a few things that we need to assess” when asked whether everyone aside from Richards is available to face Germany, but declined to go into further detail.

All 26 players trained during the period open to media.