Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell will miss start of season due to injury
It’s been a bit of a storm for Sporting Kansas City this week.
Captain Johnny Russell appeared on the club’s first injury report of the 2023 season with a hamstring injury. Coach Peter Vermes confirmed that the star forward would miss the first few weeks of the season after Russell tweaked his hamstring during a preseason match on Saturday.
“One thing I’m not going to do is try to turn certain injuries that we have right now into really long-term problems,” Vermes told reporters on Thursday. “It’s best for him to be out. As for the time frame, I’m sure it’ll be a few weeks.”
Multiple players were held out during preseason camp in Phoenix out of an abundance of caution with similar muscle injuries. At the moment, Russell and Logan Ndenbe were the only two names to pop up on the injury report as unexpected inclusions.
Kortne Ford and Gadi Kinda were also labeled as “out,” while Alan Pulido was listed as questionable for the first time in a long time. Vermes said he had a conversation with Pulido earlier in the day, discussing everything he had to go through to get to the level that he was producing at in practice the last two weeks.
“It’s been a pleasure to watch him go through the process with the attitude and mentality that he has,” Vermes said. “Now to see him back out on the field, …he’s back to being a soccer player. He’s back to being confident. And each day, that confidence grows in what he can do.”
Whether or not Pulido plays in Portland is another thing. The turf that Portland plays on is not the ideal place for a debut for someone coming off a long-term knee injury. It wouldn’t be a shock to see him on the field by Sporting’s home opener.
“I’m really happy for him,” Vermes said. “You can see that he’s feeling good just by his body language and all those things.”
While Kinda is still out after having the same surgery as Pulido, Kinda is getting closer to returning as well. His timeline began a few weeks behind Pulido’s just because of when he had the surgery. But he may get integrated back a little bit quicker.
“He’s going to move very quickly because his (surgery) was not as severe of a surgery that Alan had,” Vermes said.
In other news, Major League Soccer and the Portland Timbers announced Thursday evening that the season-opening match scheduled for Saturday was postponed until Monday, February 23, at 9 p.m. Central.
Severe winter weather in the Portland area led the Timbers and Major League Soccer to push the match back until Monday night.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell will miss start of season due to injury."