RENTON — Just as it seemed the Seattle Sounders were inching toward something like full health, news of yet another injury has hit.
The latest player to succumb is Paul Rothrock, who came out of Saturday’s game at halftime with what has now been revealed to be a reasonably serious hamstring injury that will likely keep him out 8–10 weeks. That timeline means Rothrock would potentially be available if the Sounders qualified for the playoffs, but not long before.
It has gotten to the point that even Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer can’t hide his incredulity. When addressing Rothrock’s injury, he first quipped “you’re not going to believe this” before sharing an increasing level of frustration.
“We’re doing all we can,” Schmetzer said. “You’re either talking about really, really, really, really bad luck; Or something that we’re doing really, really, really, really wrong. I don’t know where where that’s going to fall, but we’re trying to figure it out.”
Up until now, Rothrock has been one of the Sounders’ most durable players. He has played in all but one of their 29 matches, is second on the team with 2,194 minutes, and leads the team with seven goals across all-competitions.
Rothrock is now at least the 12th player to miss at least a month of the season with injury. Schmetzer has said the organization will undergo an in-depth look at training and fitness practices, but that large-scale changes likely won’t come until the offseason. In the meantime, he said they are doing their best to address these issues.
“There are certain things that we will take immediate action on, like resting guys, carving some minutes out of training, but still making them hit certain metrics as far as high-speed running during the training week, so that the first time they sprint is not the game day,” he said. “There’s certain things that we’re already starting to do. But as far as a overall restructuring of the whole sports-performance department, that’s not on the books as of yet, and we’re not going to make any drastic changes right now.”
Replacing Rothrock
Among the candidates to take Rothrock’s minutes are Sebastian Gomez and Paul Arriola. Gomez has been the player who has seemingly benefited the most from the various injuries, having now played in 12 straight matches and making five starts. He was the player Schmetzer turned to first on Saturday, replacing Rothrock after halftime.
Arriola, who is coming off a couple of solid performances off the bench, is likely still working his way back into full fitness after dealing with a few injuries of his own this year.
One other possibility is the newly acquired Caden Clark, who has not yet made his Sounders debut. Clark did earn some praise from Schmetzer after he stayed in Southern California to play 45 minutes for Tacoma Defiance on Sunday.
“He’s proven that he’s humbling himself and getting ready because now he just got a little bit closer to more playing time with Paul’s injury,” Schmetzer said.
Other injury updates
- Despite coming out of the game earlier than anticipated, both Dejan Joveljić and Kalani Kossa-Rienzi were full participants in Tuesday’s training sessions.
- Schmetzer said Jackson Ragen (knee) would be available for the Colorado Rapids game on Saturday.
