Raúl Ruidíaz will likely miss Nashville SC match with muscle injury

Raúl Ruidíaz will likely miss Sunday’s MLS regular season opener with a hamstring injury. Ruidíaz was pulled at halftime of Thursday’s 5-0 win over Motagua in the Concacaf Champions League Round of 16. He will apparently undergo an MRI on Saturday to determine the severity of the injury.

Following Thursday’s match, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer downplayed the seriousness of the injury and said Ruidíaz was pulled out of an abundance of caution. Ruidíaz missed most of the last two months of the 2021 season after suffering a hamstring injury.

“As a precaution, we took him out of the game,” Schmetzer said. “It was not like the injuries he suffered last year. But it’s early and I don’t want to risk losing Raúl for an extended period of time so we made the decision to be very cautious.”

Schmetzer has previously talked about the need to be even more careful with players’ health this year, especially with so many matches early in the season. The Sounders will play six games between now and March 20.