Paul Rothrock declared out for the season with quad injury

RENTON — The installation of Paul Rothrock into the starting lineup almost exactly coincided with the Seattle Sounders’ season turning around. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to help complete that journey.

The Sounders midfielder has been officially ruled out for the rest of the season by head coach Brian Schmetzer, who first announced the news during his Tuesday appearance on KJR. Schmetzer expanded on the situation during Wednesday’s press conference.

“The kid had a muscle issue in his quad, and he was tough enough to play through two games, because he actually felt something a little bit in Portland,” Schmetzer said. “Then the Houston series, by the time he ended those couple of games, we couldn’t get him back up to speed. We did an MRI. He’s actually got a significant quad pull, so he’s done for the rest of the year.”

Rothrock had been one of the Sounders’ most effective players down the stretch. A fixture in the lineup since coming off the bench to play 83 minutes and score a goal in a 2-0 win over Minnesota United on June 15. From that point forward, the Sounders finished the regular season by going 16-3-5 across all competitions while advancing to the Leagues Cup quarterfinals, the U.S. Open Cup semifinals and finishing fourth in the Western Conference. Rothrock was a significant reason why, contributing eight goals and four assists across all competitions.

Combined with the absence of Nouhou in the Western Conference semifinals, the Sounders ended up changing formations with Reed Baker-Whiting started as a left wingback and Jon Bell entering the game as a third centerback.

Further complicating matters for the Western Conference finals against the LA Galaxy on Saturday is that several other players are at best questionable. Baker-Whiting and Yeimar Gomez Andrade both had to come out of the LAFC match with muscle issues and have not yet resumed training.

Of the two, Schmetzer gave Yeimar a slightly better chance of returning in time and was deemed “50/50” after doing some light work on the side during Wednesday’s training session. Baker-Whiting’s calf injury was deemed a “significant” and Schmetzer gave him about a 40% chance of returning.

More positively, Nouhou has now returned from Cameroon after missing the LAFC match with an undisclosed illness. Schmetzer seemed confident that Nouhou would be able to play against the Galaxy. Schmetzer specifically mentioned how he’s looking forward to seeing how Nouhou matches up with Galaxy right winger Gabriel Pec.

“He just needs to get checked out by our doctors,” Schmetzer said. “The doctors in Cameroon cleared him to fly and they think he can play with no issues. But we’re going to do our due dilligence and make sure we’re taking care of the safety of our player. I’m expecting him back in training tomorrow and we’ll get him back up on the horse.”