Injury Report: Updates ahead of the huge matchup in Toronto

Injuries have continued to plague the team so far in 2019, but many players are close to being back.

Here’s the rundown:

Marco Fabián
Marco is back to 100% following his ankle injury, and should feature prominently against Toronto. It was smart to not risk him against New England, and it will be interesting to see how he integrates back into the squad after not having meaningful minutes since the win against Dallas over a month ago.

Brenden Aaronson
Aaronson limped off the field in the first half with a left hip injury in what was the only bad part of last Saturday’s destruction of New England. Fortunately, his injury wasn’t severe and was back to training yesterday. I wouldn’t expect to see him on the roster tomorrow, but it’s very possible he’s back for next week’s game against Seattle.

Andre Blake
Blake is still recovering from his groin tear so he won’t be playing tomorrow. The team expects him back for the Seattle game next Saturday.

Mark McKenzie
McKenzie won’t be on the roster against Toronto, still dealing with lingering effects of his appendectomy the night before the Montreal game. The homegrown center back should be good to go by the time the upcoming U-20 World Cup starts, which he will be part of per today’s official roster announcement.

Matt Freese
Freese will probably be sidelined for several more weeks with the oblique tear he suffered against Cincinnati but head coach Jim Curtin did say earlier this week that the injury wasn’t as bad as initially thought.

Fafa Picault
Picault is listed as questionable with “right hamstring tightness” on the MLS Injury Report.

MLS Head Coaches
Brad Friedel and Alan Koch’s tenures at their respective clubs have both suffered grade 3 full thickness tears, with New England and Cincinnati choosing to forgo treatment. I thought a shout out was appropriate as it seems the Union have now seen their last two opponent’s head coaches get the axe less than a week after beating them.

Bethlehem Steel FC
Head coach Brendan Burke didn’t give any specifics when asked on Thursday what the health of his squad is going into Sunday’s game against Atlanta United FC 2 in Chester but he did say they weren’t in great shape.

Saed Diaz has already left for the U-20 World Cup in Poland to join the Panama squad, regular starter Matt Real leaves Monday for Poland and midfielder Zach Zandi was walking in a boot on the sideline at training on Tuesday. Issa Rayyan was still training to the side on Tuesday.