Jamiro Monteiro out, Andre Blake back in for Saturday

Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin confirmed Friday that Jamiro Monteiro won’t be available for Saturday’s game at Talen Energy Stadium against Orlando City.

Monteiro had to leave Wednesday night’s game with an ankle injury after being on the end of an ugly challenge by Sacha Kljestan. The veteran midfielder was shown a straight red for the tackle and will also be unavailable for Saturday when Orlando comes to Chester.

The team is still waiting on X-Rays to come back to show the actual injury for the Cape Verde international.

“He had some X-Rays, he won’t be available tomorrow, that’s clear to everybody.” Curtin said, noting that he is able to walk around without a boot on his foot, which is a good sign.

The Union are already thin on players that are available after playing a good amount of minutes since the team come back from the Gold Cup break. Saturday night will be the fourth game in 14 days for Philadelphia. With tired legs it wouldn’t be surprising if we start to see changes to the starting XI for the Union.

Curtin also mentioned that Andre Blake is expected to start for tomorrow night and gave praise to young goalkeeper Matt Freese for stepping in for the star goalkeeper when he has been away playing for Jamaica in the Gold Cup.

“We know Matt is ready to come in and do the job,” Curtin said.

The Union face Orlando for the second time this week.

“Three points in Orlando doesn’t mean much if we don’t follow up with a really good performance in front of our home fans,” Curtin said.

Kick off is at 7 p.m.