João Paulo suffered what appears to be a torn ACL during training on Wednesday and is expected to miss the remainder of the season, Sounder at Heart has confirmed with multiple sources. The midfielder did not participate in Thursday’s training session and Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer is not due to address the media until Saturday. This would be the second time João Paulo has torn an ACL, having also done it in 2022.
Although the 34-year-old has only played less than 500 minutes this year, the Sounders are entering a part of the season where he was likely to see increased playing time. The Sounders will enter the Leagues Cup at the end of the month and are likely to be looking for game dates to give Cristian Roldan and/or Obed Vargas some rest. Both players are currently on pace to play the most minutes of their professional careers.
While the Sounders can place João Paulo on the season-ending injury list and replace his roster spot, they are no longer eligible for getting salary cap relief after using that to sign Ryan Kent following Paul Arriola’s injury. MLS roster rules dictate that teams can only get salary-relief once per season. Based on the latest accounting, the Sounders have about $1.1 million of available salary-cap space.
