Pedro de la Vega suffers another injury

SEATTLE – Just as he was ramping up his training and potentially even getting ready to make his return to the field, Pedro de la Vega has suffered another injury setback. The midfielder left Wednesday’s training session early after complaining of some pain and has not participated since then. Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer confirmed on Friday that de la Vega will not be available for Saturday’s match against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

“He had a new injury, same hamstring, little bit lower down the leg,” Schmetzer said, adding that they won’t have a recovery timeline until next week. “He’s super down. He came here to help the team win, he hasn’t been able to do that.

“It’s tough on a young man who’s come here from a foreign country; his family and everyone is down there. We’re thinking of some ways to bring people up, get him through these tough times. I have faith in the kid. He was great in training up until that moment. He sparked the whole group, so it’s a bummer.”

It has been a frustrating start to de la Vega’s Sounders career, to say the least. The Sounders signed him as the club’s first-ever Young DP over the offseason, spending about $6.5 million to bring him from Argentina’s Lanus with the hope that he’d be the centerpiece of the team for the next several years.

But de la Vega has been battling injuries ever since joining the team in preseason. He was able to get fit in time to make his debut in the season opener – which included a goal – and started the home opener a week later, but left that game with a hamstring injury after just 63 minutes. At that point, the team opted to play it cautious by setting his timeline to return at 6-8 weeks. If he had played this week, it would have been seven weeks since than announcement.

“Obviously he’s been working very hard to come back,” Sounders midfielder Albert Rusnák said. “This is not something he wanted or any of us wanted. It’s definitely a setback for him. But given how young he is, these are moments that could define him. Maybe in five- to six-years time and he’s been healthy and playing for many years he’ll look back on this as something that made him tougher.”

Other injury news

• Reed Baker-Whiting remains on track to return to full training next week. The Sounders had hoped to have him back a little earlier, but a bout with pneumonia limited his training this week. Baker-Whiting has yet to play this year.
• João Paulo estimated that he’s about 60-70 minutes fit and is expected to make his first start of the season.
• Braudilio Rodrigues continues to train on the side and has been dealing with a hamstring injury since preseason. There has been no clear timeline given for his return.