Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
It looks like Clint Dempsey’s whirlwind summer might be starting to catch up with him.
The Seattle Sounders big summer signing was ruled out of the club’s 1-1 draw at the Los Angeles Galaxy after picking up a hamstring injury late last week, keeping him from even traveling to the game. According to Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid, the injury is progressing well but Schmid is unsure whether Dempsey will be fit to go on Sunday when the Sounders welcome the New York Red Bulls to CenturyLink Field.
“He’s doing OK, doing much better,” Schmid told the Seattle Times after practice on Tuesday. “The decision for these two days was to stay inside. We’ll see where he’s at when we come back into training on Friday.”
Starting with the mid-July trip with Tottenham to Hong Kong and back to London, to his August 3 move to Seattle and all the travel to and from U.S. Men’s National Team games, it’s not far off to think that the exhaustion from Dempsey’s travels played a part in this recent hamstring issue.
“Don’t know exactly,” Schmid said about how he thought Dempsey may have suffered his injury. “When he came back from the national team, he didn’t do that much. But obviously it’s something that either with the wear and tear with national team, playing those games in rapid succession, or maybe coming back with a wrong step at training. It’s hard to tell.”
The Seattle Times is also reporting that Eddie Johnson was held out of contact and then left training early due to a shoulder injury.
The report stated that he was set to have an X-ray taken on the shoulder on Tuesday, with more news on his situation later this week.
If the Sounders were to play without both Dempsey and Johnson on Sunday, it would severely diminish the spectacle around what could be a marquee late-season match. Comments made earlier in the day by Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke point to starters Thierry Henry and Jamison Olave missing the match due to the turf surface.
——
What do you think of these developments? Do you see Dempsey returning in time for Sunday’s game? Do you feel his busy traveling schedule was a cause for the injury? Worried about Johnson’s injury?
Share your thoughts below.