RENTON — A second MRI on Jordan Morris’ injured hamstring confirmed something close to a worst-case scenario for the striker, revealing that it is a re-aggravation of the injury he had just returned from. That means he’ll likely need about six weeks to return.
“Not good news,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters following Thursday’s training session. “There will be some wiggle room — a week here, a week there — but it’s probably six weeks.”
Following that timeline, Schmetzer was hopeful that they’d get Morris back in time to compete in the Club World Cup, where the Sounders’ first match is scheduled for June 15 against South American power Botafogo, which is almost exactly seven weeks after the injury occurred.
In the meantime, Danny Musovski will likely continue to be the Sounders’ first option at the No. 9. Musovski is tied for the team lead with four goals across all competitions this year, including goals in three consecutive matches.
The Sounders are also likely to continue to give Jesús Ferreira opportunities at the spot, although his status for Saturday’s match against St. Louis City is up in the air after he suffered an adductor strain. Schmetzer said they would assess Ferreira’s availability on Friday, but he seemed inclined to err on the side of caution.
“I don’t want to lose another attacking player,” Schmetzer said. “That one is a little trickier.”
Of course, that’s exactly what Schmetzer thought he was doing with the way he handled Morris’ injury, too.
Morris first hurt his hamstring on March 11 in a road match against Cruz Azul, but it wasn’t believed to be very serious. Still, he was held out of the next four games and after two weeks of full training was cleared to return for the April 12 match against FC Dallas, only to be pulled from the starting lineup at the last minute after experiencing some adductor discomfort.
Morris was again deemed ready to play the following week and logged about 30 minutes at home against Nashville SC, showing no signs of distress and reaching 98% of his top acceleration speed, according to Schmetzer.
There was some consideration to starting Morris against the Colorado Rapids, but Schmetzer decided to ride the hot hand of Musovski before making a halftime change. Morris again showed no physical signs of distress until the 90th minute when he went to the ground after springing a counter-attack.
Asked to reflect on the process the Sounders went through when bringing back Morris, Schmetzer seemed comfortable with how it was handled. But he did say that the team would likely regularly conduct MRIs throughout the rehab period in order to better monitor the progress players are making.
“We are turning over everything just to figure it out,” Schmetzer said. “We’ll try to get them back as fas as we can as safely as we can.”
