FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution fans looked on with dread as winger Dylan Borrero was stretchered off the pitch in the dying moments of Saturday’s loss to the New York Red Bulls, wincing in pain from a knock to the same knee to which the Colombian sustained a season-ending injury just over a year ago. Initial uncertainty as to the severity of this new injury would have left many waiting anxiously for an update and hoping that things wouldn’t turn out to be too serious.
Fortunately, head coach Caleb Porter confirmed after training on Tuesday that Borrero’s injury was nowhere near as severe as first feared, with the speedy winger fit enough to participate in portions of training and not expected to miss much if any game time on his careful road back to full fitness. A promising update on defender DeJuan Jones was also given, but the status of winger Nacho Gil was unfortunately not as positive.
“[Dylan Borrero] will be fine,” Porter said after practice. “It [looked] a lot worse at first … It was a hard knock on, basically, his lateral knee, so it’s a contusion. It was very painful, but he did a little training today. He’s going to continue to progress and we expect that he will be available.”
Borrero’s 2023 season was brought to an abrupt end in April of last year after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee. He made his first appearance of the 2024 season as a substitute in the April 27 home loss to Inter Miami CF, playing nine minutes off the bench. Porter has said previously that care would be taken to ease Borrero back to full fitness slowly, and his substitute appearances against Chicago Fire FC and New York lasted for 15 and 26 minutes, respectively.
Jones, meanwhile, has been out for about a month after coming off with a hamstring injury against New York City FC on April 13. Porter said that he, too, had been in training, and could be returning to the lineup soon.
“DeJuan trained today,” Porter said. “Half training. We’re hoping full training tomorrow. Then we’ve just got to work him in, obviously, with the fitness. So, we hope that he is available for some minutes. Obviously, the outside back position is a little tricky. You don’t sub a ton in that position, but I think he could be available in the next couple of weeks to play.”
Unfortunately, in the case of Nacho Gil, who sustained a meniscus injury toward the end of the match against Miami, his absence appears likely to be more long-term.
“[Nacho] is out for a while. It’s going to be a couple months with him,” Porter said.
Revolution fans will have ample opportunity to gauge the progress of their returning players with their own eyes in the coming weeks, as the league’s rescheduling of an away fixture with the Columbus Crew means that four of the Revs’ next five games will be played in Foxborough. Their initial two-game home stand starts on Saturday against the Philadelphia Union, before New York City FC comes up on May 25 for the teams’ second showdown of the campaign.
