SEATTLE — Jordan Morris can’t seem to catch a break these days. In just his second start since returning from his second hamstring injury of the season, Morris took a nasty fall that resulted in a separated AC joint and will require surgery. Morris is expected to undergo that surgery on Tuesday, at which point the Sounders should have a better idea of how long it will take him to recover.
The injury occurred when Morris was giving chase to a ball in behind. San Jose Earthquakes centerback Dave Romney was shielding Morris as goalkeeper Daniel came out of his box to make the clearance. As Morris was pulling up, Daniel slid and upended Morris, who landed directly on his left shoulder.
Although no official timeline has been given, multiple sources have indicated that the best-case scenario for Morris return is about eight weeks. If Morris were able to actually return that quickly — a non-professional athlete would likely require at least twice as long to recover from that sort of procedure — he would be back just in time for the last few games of the regular season and be available for a potential playoff run.
Aside from the two seasons that he mostly missed while recovering from two different ACL injuries, this has been the most injury-plagued season of Morris’ career. This is the third significant injury he’s suffered this year, limiting him to just 409 of 2,070 available league minutes this season. Morris has only been able to start 4 of 23 league games.
When healthy, however, Morris has been enjoying his most productive season of his career. His four goals equate to .88 goals per 90 minutes, better even than the .52 goals per 90 minutes he averaged in 2020 when he was a MVP contender.
In the meantime, Morris’ minutes will likely fall to Danny Musovski, who is enjoying a career year. After scoring a brace off the bench against the San Jose Earthquakes, Musovski now has a career-high eight goals in league play and nine goals across all competitions. Among players with at least 500 minutes played, Musovski ranks sixth in MLS with .67 goals per 90 minutes and he’s second in MLS with .69 xG per 90.
