Pedro de la Vega will “probably” be out for the rest of 2026, Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer revealed on Friday. The midfielder has already missed virtually all of the season while rehabbing from a broken kneecap he suffered in the regular-season finale last year.
After months of rehabilitation, he was deemed ready to return for the Aug. 9 match against Querétaro. De la Vega entered the match in the 76th minute and immediately looked sharp, nearly scoring a goal. But less than 10 minutes later, de la Vega pulled up after going into a challenge, quickly motioned for a sub and was removed from the match with what was eventually diagnosed as a quad strain. There was initially some hope that it might not be too serious but the worst fears were later confirmed.
“They’re talking about maybe a surgery, maybe not,” Schmetzer said. “They’re going to get a second opinion, a third opinion, the best doctors in the United States, another doctor from Argentina. We’re covering all the bases with that. It’s pretty significant.”
When de la Vega first signed with the Sounders ahead of the 2024 season, the hope was that he could fill the shoes left by Nicolás Lodeiro. While the Designated Player has shown flashes of brilliance — including a roughly four-month stretch last season in which he had six goals and two assists highlighted by a Leagues Cup Player of the Tournament performance — he has battled injuries almost from the the moment he joined the Sounders. Now in his third season, de la Vega has featured in just 47% of the Sounders matches.
While de la Vega can be placed on the season-ending injury list to open his roster spot, MLS rules dictate that it’s too late for the Sounders to get salary-budget relief. In order to do that, de la Vega would have needed to be placed on the SEI list before the summer transfer window opened on July 13.
The Sounders are, however, believed to be getting close to signing at least one or two players before the window closes on Sept. 2.
De la Vega is just the latest in what has been a rash of injuries that have decimated the Sounders this year. A recent study by Sounder at Heart suggested the Sounders have been among the most injury-prone teams this year. It’s been particularly acute among their Designated Players, who have played in just 38.8% of the available minutes. That ranks as the third-lowest figure in MLS this year.
DMP
Schmetzer said the Sounders continue to investigate the causes of those injuries, but that no conclusions have yet been reached.
"We’re still talking, going over all the data," Schmetzer said. "In Pedro’s case, we looked at that data with a fine-toothed comb. The recovery was good. We were recovering the knee but we were building a better athlete and something else happens. We’ve been looking at everything.
"This is an abnormal year in terms of injuries. We were trending in a fairly good direction. It seems to have hit us pretty hard."
Other injuries
- Schmetzer said Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris are getting closer to return and could potentially feature against FC Cincinnati on Aug. 22 or the Chicago Fire on Aug. 29. "With the way we’ve had this rash of injuries, we’re going to be a little more cautious with return to play and make sure we don’t have any more re-injuries."
- There were no updated timelines on Hassani Dotson, Paul Arriola or Yeimar Gomez Andrade.
