The Seattle Sounders’ injury situation will be a little better this week, but the timeline for it significantly improving is actually getting longer.
While Alex Roldan, Kim Kee-hee and Ryan Sailor will all likely be available for Saturday’s game against the Portland Timbers, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer revealed that Hassani Dotson will miss the match with a hamstring injury and Yeimar Gomez Andrade picked up a new injury that will keep him out an additional 4–6 weeks. Meanwhile, Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris are each at least 3–4 weeks away from returning.
“We’ll make adjustments; we believe in the young kids to give a good effort against our arch rivals,” Schmetzer said. “The guys that come on are going to fight and do whatever they can.”
Yeimar’s injury is particularly painful as he has not appeared since March 7 and has played just 3 of 16 matches this season. He has looked close to returning on multiple occasions and had resumed full training during the World Cup break before suffering a setback. Yeimar was again looking ready to return this week, but suffered a new injury to his calf.
Schmetzer expressed confidence in his training staff, but said they are continuing to examine their processes.
“I know they’re working hard to find trends, to see if it’s training, to see if it’s weights,” he said. “There just seems to be different injuries to different guys at different moments. We’re going over our training plans and making sure we’re not overcooking them.”
Different approach
Riding a five-game losing streak and facing their biggest rivals would seemingly be all the motivation the Sounders need. But Schmetzer made a similar assumption heading into the previous game against the Timbers on July 16, only to suffer one of the most humiliating losses in club history. He will now take a different approach.
“I know last game I said they didn’t need any extra motivation but they’ve heard it repeatedly,” he said. “It is a rivalry, it has to matter. They’re going to hear it’s important.”
