Paul Arriola has been placed on the Season-Ending Injury list after undergoing successful knee surgery on Monday. The 30-year-old suffered a torn left ACL on March 11 in a match against Cruz Azul. It’s the second time he’s suffered a torn ACL after doing his right knee in 2020.
The surgery was performed Dr. Bert Mandelbaum in Santa Monica, who also did ACL repairs for Jordan Morris and João Paulo. Arriola is expected to return to Seattle and begin rehabilitation soon.
By placing Arriola on the SEI list, he is ineligible to play for the remainder of the 2025 season. The upshot, though, is the Sounders are able to recover the remaining portion of his salary-cap hit. Although the players’ union has not yet released their salary data, Arriola was expected to count about $650,000 against the cap this season. The Sounders should be able to free up about 75% of that.
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer acknowledged on Tuesday that the team is already looking at Arriola replacements. Sounder at Heart reported on Monday that they are in “advanced talks” with English winger Ryan Kent, who is available on a free after mutually agreeing to terminate his contract with Fenerbahçe.
