FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution’s treatment room is getting a bit crowded.
Teal Bunbury (hamstring), Charlie Davies (groin), Steve Neumann (knee) and Chris Tierney (hamstring) were all unavailable for last weekend’s draw with Orlando City SC before three more players went down with injuries during the second half of that match.
Je-Vaughn Watson and Lee Nguyen both came off in the final 15 minutes, while Donnie Smith fought through a muscle strain in the late stages because the Revs had already made three substitutions.
Head coach Jay Heaps said that removing Watson and Nguyen was mostly precautionary as the duo had, until that point, played every minute of a three-games-in-eight-days stretch.
“Those guys were precautionary and guys that had played two 90-minute games, and now they’re in the 75th, 80th minute (of a third game),” said Heaps. “We needed to be smart.”
Watson was back in training on Tuesday and Nguyen – who had tightness in his hamstring – called himself “day-to-day,” but Smith could find himself sidelined for this weekend’s trip to the West Coast.
“Donnie Smith was probably the worst of the group (with regards to injuries) and he did a great job of finishing the game,” said Heaps. “That’s the one that’s of most concern today.”
With still four days until Sunday afternoon’s nationally-televised meeting with the LA Galaxy (3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN) it’s unclear how many of the Revolution’s walking wounded will recover in time, but this is a scenario that Heaps and the Revs have been planning for since before the season even kicked off.
“We’re working everyone into the lineup,” said Diego Fagundez, one of just three Revolution field players to have appeared in all 10 games this season. “No one knows who’s going to be in (the lineup), so we just have to keep working with whoever is at training, trying to communicate with them as much as possible.
“We all know what we have to do when we’re on the field. It’s one thing from day one that we’ve known what to do. Whoever is out there is going to do their job.”
