RENTON — There was a surprise and welcome visitor at Seattle Sounders training on Tuesday: Stefan Frei.
Less than 48 hours after he suffered a scary-looking collision that forced him to leave the field in an ambulance, Frei was observing his teammates from the sidelines.
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said he had been texting back and forth with Frei a day earlier, and told his goalkeeper to just stay home, recover and do whatever doctors were advising. Frei had other thoughts.
“He wanted to let all of us know he was fine," Schmetzer said. "That’s part of who Stef is, what he’s about. He’s a great leader.
“It was uplifting to have him in the building. The players fed off some of that energy in the film session.”
Count Obed Vargas among the players happy to see him.
“Stef is a symbol of what we’re all supposed to be,” Vargas said. “Putting this body on the line, I feel like he’d do it again if the play were there. We all know as athletes we’re going to run into moments like that. But that’s why we’re all doing this.”
None of that means Frei will be back anytime soon or even that there’s a clear timeline for his return. Although a CT scan did not reveal any other damage, Frei is in the concussion protocol. At the very least, he’ll miss Saturday’s road game against Sporting KC and recovering from concussions varies wildly. Sometimes, a player just misses a week, other times they can be out for months or even longer.
The Sounders are not interested in rushing back Frei.
“We’re always careful,” Schmetzer said. “Guys’ health is paramount but the guys are who they are and they want to come back. They might try to push boundaries and we have to protect them for themselves.
“It’s give and take, making sure we really adhere to the protocol. We did a good job with Cristian’s concussions. We’ll do a good job with Stef’s.”
Schmetzer said he was particularly happy with how the Sounders’ medical team handled the situation.
“They were perfect,” he said. “They were talking about it this morning and asking how they can get it even better. Stef was appreciative of their expertise and so was I. I thought we handled it well.”
Other health updates
Yeimar Gomez Andrade and Kim Kee-hee were both fully training, but it still might be a stretch to have them back in time for Saturday’s road game. More realistically, Schmetzer said they hope to have them back for the July 16 home match against the Colorado Rapids and the July 19 match against the San Jose Earthquakes.
