Here's who should replace Geoff Cameron in the USMNT lineup against Mexico

Schrodinger’s Cat is dead.

Mark Hughes let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. The Stoke City manager announced that Geoff Cameron, his central defender and a United States national team pillar, would not be playing against West Ham on Saturday, and that he likely wouldn’t be representing the U.S. in the first games of the final round of World Cup against Mexico and Costa Rica over the next week and a half either.

“It’s a long shot,” Hughes told reporters on Friday of Cameron, who hurt his knee against Hull City on Oct. 22, making the West Ham game. “It’s unlikely he’ll be involved tomorrow – or in international level next week.”

“I want to play against Mexico – that’s the big game for sure — and I’ll devastated and upset if I can’t,” Cameron told ESPN FC. “But if I’m not right, I’m not right.”

Under Jurgen Klinsmann, the national team hasn’t made the kind of progress that was expected of his appointment. This is a well-worn point. But one of the things the German head coach has accomplished is to build real depth in the team – or perhaps he’s just the beneficiary of a stronger generation of talent pushing through than ever before. Either way, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore excepted, there aren’t really any players on the team whose skill-set can’t be replaced adequately by somebody else.

Bradley’s engine and composed ball distribution are unmatched. And so is Altidore’s blend of muscular hold-up play and poacher’s instincts. Other than the two of them, you’ll find a like-for-like stand-in for most anybody else.

Except Cameron.

The tall defender, who began his career as a central midfielder, is on his fifth season as an undisputed starter in the Premier League, a run very few American field players – or indeed goalkeepers – have ever matched. At 31, he is still at his best. And his ability on the ball is now matched by his dominance in the air and prowess in one-on-one defending.

He’s formed as fine a central defensive pairing with John Brooks as the U.S. has had since the Carlos Bocanegra-Oguchi Onyewu partnership in its heyday, before the latter’s career was ruined by injuries. Brooks will be there for that all-important and symbolically crucial home game against Mexico, and one of the trickier away games in Costa Rica. And if his regular partner is not, penciling in his replacement presents a real challenge.

Matt Besler is perhaps the next-best central defender in the pool, but he doesn’t pass the ball as well as Cameron – robbing the team if an important weapon with long balls dispatched from the back – and he’s left-footed. Brooks is too. And on the right side of central defense, Klinsmann, like most every coach, favors a right-footed player like Cameron. Tim Ream is reliable, but he’s a lefty, too.

Among the right-footers, Steve Birnbaum is still inexperienced at nine international caps and Ventura Alvarado has been out of the picture for some time. One-time mega-prospect Matt Miazga was loaned out by Chelsea to Vitesse in the Netherlands, where he hasn’t yet demonstrated that he’s a national team starter. Michael Orozco isn’t the answer to this problem, as he tends to wither in the face of elite international competition, even if he holds up well enough against second- and third-tier teams.

So that leaves Omar Gonzalez. Good old Omar, the towering Texan with the affable personality and winning smile. During the last cycle, he was largely the starter during the hexagonal round alongside Besler, until he was often displaced by Cameron in the World Cup itself. Since then, Gonzalez has joined Pachuca in Liga MX – for some reason dressing up as Darth Vader for his unveiling – matured (on the field, anyway) and evolved into a better defender.

He still has his flaws, mind, even though he’s cut out the gaffes that once defined his seasons and counteracted countless acts of strong defending. Klinsmann doesn’t seem to have made up his mind about him, exactly, as Gonzalez has slipped in and out of the lineup. But given his ability on the ball, in the air and one-on-one, he’s the best option for the team in Cameron’s spot.

He isn’t at the same level. Nobody is. But somebody has to play there.