Pedro de la Vega will be available off the bench for the Seattle Sounders on Saturday when they visit San Diego FC, head coach Brian Schmetzer announced after Thursday’s training session.
If de la Vega were to play, it would be exactly four weeks after he suffered a quadricep strain against LAFC on March 8. The Sounders initially put his timeline for return at 4-6 weeks.
As encouraging as it may be that de la Vega was able to return relatively quickly, Schmetzer also acknowledged that he’ll be a bit more “careful” moving forward. De la Vega suffered several muscle injuries last year and the Sounders are surely reluctant to start a cycle like that again. This injury happened in his sixth appearance of the season, which all came in a span of 18 days. It was also his third appearance in the span of seven days, including two starts just three days apart.
“I’m not going to overcook him at the first opportunity,” Schmetzer said. “I can take some responsibility on the last one, playing him on short rest in that week where we had three games in seven days. I can accept that and I’m not going to do it again.”
Part of why de la Vega was playing so much, though, was he looked considerably more fit than at any point last year and was playing particularly well. After failing to score an open-play goal in any of his 20 appearances last year, de la Vega has already scored three goals this year.
Other injury concerns
- Danny Musovski has been limited in training all week while dealing with a "nagging” back injury and was officially deemed “questionable” by Schmetzer.
- Jordan Morris, who suffered a hamstring strain on March 11 and was also expected to miss 4-6 weeks, will not travel.
