Josh Atencio should be back vs. Atlanta United

After a seemingly never-ending series of bad news on the injury front, there’s finally some good news: Josh Atencio will apparently be back against Atlanta United on Sunday.

“He was in training this week,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters on Friday. “I expect him to be involved in the game.”

What kind of role is obviously still to be determined, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Atencio could be reinserted into the starting lineup. Atencio started the Sounders’ first two games of the season, barely putting a foot wrong in either. He was slated to start a third consecutive game, but suffered a strained quadriceps on the day before the LA Galaxy match and has now missed four straight matches.

Kelyn Rowe has started in Atencio’s place in three of those games and Danny Leyva started the other. Neither looked out of place, but not quite up to Atencio’s standard. That the Sounders won the four games that Atencio missed, however, is probably a point in favor of giving one of those two at least another look.

Combined with the signing of AB Cissoko on Friday, the Sounders are likely to have a full 20-man roster for just the second time this year.