Former U.S. men’s national team player Landon Donovan recently hit out at the number of absentees from the current squad this summer and current midfielder Weston McKennie has responded to those comments. McKennie, who is currently preparing with his club Juventus for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup, is one of several players missing from Mauricio Pochettino’s June squad. In addition to club teammate Tim Weah and Borussia Dortmund midfielder Gio Reyna, McKennie will have to wait until the September international window to represent the USMNT again this year. Donovan’s comments came during Fox’s postgame coverage of Sunday’s UEFA Nations League Final between Portugal and Spain, a match that Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal won 5-4 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 scoreline through 120 minutes. The 40-year-old Ronaldo scored in the match before leaving in regulation due to an injury, watching his teammates get the job done in penalty kicks. USMNT star Christian Pulisic received plenty of criticism after being left off of the roster following a 50-appearance season for Italian club AC Milan, which led to U.S. Soccer agreeing to rest him for the summer. While both Pulisic and McKennie won’t be with the USMNT for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, McKennie hit back at Donovan in regard to his overall commitment to the program.“Obviously, none of us take for granted playing for the national team. None of us want to lose games,” McKennie said in an interview with USA Today on Monday. “All of us want to compete. And for me, it’s a little bit, I won’t say sad, but as a former national team player, I think as a national team player pool, previous, present, I think it’s more about trying to build or even say something like that to a person directly rather than putting it out there.“That’s just my opinion because we’ve all been through those moments, even when comments about us losing the Nations League were made by many players from before, but they’ve had the same thing on a bigger stage with not qualifying for the World Cup,” he added. McKennie and Weah will open Club World Cup play on June 18 against Al Ain in Washington, D.C. while the USMNT opens Gold Cup play three days earlier against Trinidad & Tobago.