Mauricio Pochettino praised Diego Luna's 'big balls' after the USMNT star continued playing after suffering a horrific broken nose on Wednesday night.
Luna, who plays his club soccer team with Real Salt Lake in the MLS, was elbowed in the face during the first half of their 3-0 friendly win over Costa Rica.
He was bleeding profusely from his nose and required urgent medical attention, but somehow managed to return to the field after having cotton stuffed into both nostrils.
In his immediate return to the game, Luna provided an assist to Brian White to open the scoring.
Speaking at full-time, former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Pochettino praised Luna's resilience after he pleaded with his manager to let him continue.
Luna went to hospital afterwards before posting a photo of her face, which was covered in blood, on Instagram. He wrote: 'Thank you all for the messages. I'm all good.'
Mauricio Pochettino praised Diego Luna's 'big balls' after he continued playing with a broken nose
Luna was elbowed in the face during the first half of the 3-0 win over Costa Rica.
Luna went to hospital afterwards before posting a photo of her bloody face on Instagram.
White and Caden Clark each scored their first international goals as Pochettino's side dominated the entire match in Orlando.
White scored in the 21st minute and Clark in the 77th before Patrick Agyemang added a goal in the 90th after also scoring on his debut Saturday against Venezuela.
The match completed the January build-up for Pochettino, who has won five of his six matches since taking charge in October.
With European players not being called up for this international window, this was a perfect time to evaluate the talent in MLS before the star players are called up for the big tournaments of 2025: the CONCACAF Nations League semi-final against Panama on March 20 and the CONCACAF Gold Cup in June and July.