Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports
Up front, I want to be clear that although I am a practicing physician in a Seattle hospital I have no direct knowledge of the players’ conditions, treatment, or prognosis. Some of you may recall this same disclaimer when I accurately prognosticated Clint Dempsey’s arrhythmia, so with that in mind let’s gaze into the crystal ball together.
First up, Stefan Frei. He had a knee injury on May 12 that he described as “a few tears, but nothing important.” After watching replays of the injury and studying the mechanism and angles I suspect it was a minor MCL tear, possibly with medial meniscus involvement. That would have put him on track for a 3-6 week return to activity without restrictions. Unfortunately, on May 28, head coach Brian Schmetzer informed us that Frei had a blood clot which changed his timeline to an indefinite one. Fancy doctor talk for a blood clot is a thrombosis, so our options are a superficial or a deep venous thrombosis.
For the first two and a half matches of Stefan Cleveland’s time in goal for the Seattle Sounders, he didn’t have much to worry about. Outside of a well-taken penalty kick by Atlanta United’s Josef Martínez near the end of their 1-1 draw on May 23, Cleveland had relatively light work from the run of play. Then in the 71st minute of Sunday’s scoreless draw with Austin FC,
Seattle Sounders FC (5-0-3, 18 points) and Austin FC (2-4-1, 7 points) played to a scoreless draw on Sunday night at Lumen Field. With a home point, Seattle maintains its hold on both the Supporters’ Shield race and the Western Conference standings heading into the June international break. With five wins and three draws to begin the season, Seattle has not lost in 2021, and