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Toronto Striker Altidore Linked With Move

Toronto FC striker Jozy Altidore has been left out of the U.S.’ Sunday friendly against Trinidad & Tobago.

U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter confirmed that Altidore returned to full training on Saturday after recovering from a minor strain.

But with the transfer deadline looming, the 31-year-old has been linked with a move away from Toronto, and Berhalter said “it’s a chance we didn’t want to take with Jozy, so he will not be participating.”

“Throughout the last three weeks you wouldn’t believe the amount of calls I’ve been getting from clubs about different players,” Berhalter said on Saturday. “You guys (journalists) are part of that speculation. But you see it as well and you hear it.

“We’ve gotten calls about a ton of players. Jozy’s another focus of transfer speculation. I don’t think it’s my place to go into details of that. I think that’s a place for his club and Jozy. But there have been a number of clubs interested in Jozy as well as other players in camp.”

Altidore appeared to distance himself from the transfer speculation when he tweeted on Saturday evening: “Don’t believe everything you read. The devil is working overtime.”

/Stewart
Sports news editor