Osvaldo Alonso, Chad Marshall injuries not as serious as feared

The Seattle Sounders probably feared the worst on Tuesday in Commerce City when two of their most important players had to be substituted off due to injuries early in the first half. Captain and midfielder Osvaldo Alonso exited the pitch in the 17th minute, while defender Chad Marshall had to come off in the 22nd.

Alonso’s injury looked especially bad and required him to be stretchered off, but a club representative confirmed on Thursday that both players’ injuries are minor at this point. Alonso has a sprained MCL in his knee, while Marshall has a foot sprain (club did not elaborate on this). There is no definite timeline for either player’s return, but it seems highly unlikely they would take part in Saturday’s friendly with Eintracht Frankfurt.

Sounders assistant coach Gonzalo Pineda, who has taken charge of the team this week while head coach Brian Schmetzer attends a US Soccer coaching course out of town, said he’s optimistic about both players’ returns. “It’s not good that they got injured, but it’s good news that it’s nothing really bad. We might have them for the next game against DC.”

Sounders staff also confirmed that Harry Shipp still has a cast on his broken hand, but as we saw on Tuesday, this hasn’t kept the player from matches or training sessions. The team hopes to use the Gold Cup break to get Shipp’s hand healed, but he could still feature in the team’s next MLS match even if it’s not 100%.