RENTON – Coming off a pair of disappointing results to start the 2024 season, the Seattle Sounders shared more bad news on Tuesday when Brian Schmetzer announced that Pedro de la Vega’s hamstring injury will keep him out 6-8 weeks. The injury isn't to the same hamstring de la Vega hurt during preseason, but rather is a re-aggravation of the injury he suffered shortly before signing with the Sounders when he was with the Argentina U23 team.
“He feels pretty confident about it, but we’re going to take it easy to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Schmetzer told reporters. “It’s both sides, there’s some issues there that the trainers want to get right before we proceed. That certainly was a blow because we saw how good and influential he can be.”
In two appearances with the Sounders, de la Vega has flashed some potential. He came off the bench in the season opener and provided a boost to the team, converting a penalty and constantly asking questions of the LAFC defense. On Saturday, he got his first MLS start and looked sharp in 63 minutes before coming out. Small sample size aside, de la Vega currently leads MLS wingers in successful dribbles (6.07) and duels won (11.12) per 90 minutes.
Although de la Vega has struggled to stay healthy in the roughly six weeks since his signing, Schmetzer insisted the team is confident that this is just a bump in the road.
“We know he’s durable,” he said. “Whatever happened in Argentina and happened in preseason, we’re going to correct that.”
