RENTON — Just as Nikola Petković seemed to be settling into the Seattle Sounders’ rotation, the central midfielder has suffered a major setback when it was revealed that he tore his right ACL. The injury happened during Saturday’s training session when he was jostling with a player on the sideline and his knee gave out.
“That is a serious blow to the kid and to the club,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said following Tuesday’s training session. “He’s got something good there. That is really a bummer. It kinda sucked the life out of training that day.”
Petković has not yet undergone surgery to repair the tear, but this is almost certainly a season-ending injury. It was about this time a year ago that Paul Arriola tore his ACL, which kept him out until preseason.
Adding a layer of complication to Petković’s situation is that he’s technically a Charlotte FC player on loan to the Sounders. That makes it a bit unclear where he will rehab or what will happen when the loan expires at the end of the season.
Schmetzer seemed to indicate that he’d be open to bringing back the U22 player, assuming the terms can be agreed upon between the Sounders and Charlotte front offices.
“They’ve got to work some legalities, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s done enough,” Schmetzer said. “Let’s see what happens, he’s a talented kid. We think that kid has some potential.”
Speaking to the media last Thursday, Petković had indicated that he was enjoying his time with the Sounders and seemed hopeful that they would choose to exercise their purchase option at the end of the loan.
"I don't want to be rude, but it just didn't go in a good way," Petković said about his time in Charlotte. "Now, it's much, much better. It's more enjoyable. I'm happy here. I think this is a much better environment for me."
Petković had just come off his second Sounders start – going 64 minutes in a scoreless tie with Minnesota United – and had appeared in 6 of 7 matches across all competitions. Both of those starts came with Hassani Dotson out due to a concussion and with the Sounders in a particularly intense period of fixture congestion.
With Dotson likely to resume full training this week, that helps mitigate the on-field aspect of Petković's loss.
"He was finding minutes because of his play," Schmetzer said. "Was he outplaying a few guys to get minutes? You could say he was trending in that direction. He had the opportunity to show us he could be a very good player.
"But I feel good about the group with Hassani coming back."
What happens next?
The Sounders will have the option to place Petković on the season-ending injury list. Although there's limited salary-cap relief to be had with such a maneuver due to Petković only counting $200,000 toward the cap as a U22, it would allow the Sounders to open both a senior and international roster spot. It also opens a U22 spot, but they already had two such spots open.
Other injury updates
- Stuart Hawkins (quad) has returned to full training and could be available as soon as Saturday against the Houston Dynamo.
- Alex Roldan did not return to training on Tuesday, but is expected to return before the team leaves for Houston on Friday.
- There was no clear timeline on the return of Pedro de la Vega or Ryan Sailor, but both have been doing more work outside and could be training with the group in the next few weeks.
