CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy will be without a key cog in their dynamic midfield for the next month – perhaps more – after Marcelo Sarvas went down with a knee injury in training this week.
He's listed as questionable on LA's game report for Saturday's Western Conference meeting at the Colorado Rapids (9 pm ET; MLS Live). But head coach Bruce Arena said Friday the Brazilian midfielder would not be available, and Sarvas confirmed that he'll be sidelined for several weeks.
“It's an MCL, the ligament, but it's not torn, it's [sprained],” Sarvas said after watching LA's final training session before flying to Denver. “It just the first days. Now it's waiting day after day to recover and get better.”
Gyasi Zardes seems the likeliest replacement, whether LA stick with the diamond midfield they've used in their last four games or revert to a flatter formation.
Sarvas was hurt Tuesday on an Omar Gonzalez tackle as he tried to shoot. The timing isn’t ideal, with the Galaxy set to play weekly after just five league games in the season's first eight weeks.
“I'm fine, my head's good, I know that I'm going to have a good recovery,” Sarvas said. “I know my body, and hopefully at the end of the month I can come back and be ready again.”
The medical staff, he said, told him recovery can take up to two months.
“You never know,” Sarvas said. “It's different between players.”
In other Galaxy injury news, LA will again be missing left back Todd Dunivant, who has done some running but has not trained since suffering an abdominal tear in LA's April 6 victory over Chivas USA.
“He's a slow healer, as a starting point,” Arena said. “He's never on a normal timeline coming back from injury. That's part of [his] makeup.”
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Dunivant said on Thursday's Corner of the Galaxy podcast that his recovery is taking “slower than I'd like.”
“It's one of those injuries that is frustrating, because you can't do anything,” he said. “You can't do fitness, you can't [lift] weights because everything you do you use your abs. … You just have to be patient and rest.”
Midfielder Robbie Rogers, who has made three appearances with the Galaxy II USL PRO side after coming back from a preseason leg injury, was slated to travel with the first team for the first time this year.
Arena said Rogers is not yet in the kind of form required.
“He's getting better, but he's got a long way to go,” Arena said. “He's getting fitter; now the soccer's got to get better. He's got to be playing a little bit quicker, he's got to be moving a little better at times. He missed the whole preseason, so he's behind.”
The oft-injured Rogers thinks he's starting to catch up.
“Those games really helped me,” he said of his time with the Galaxy II. “I've been able to train now for two, 2½, three weeks straight, which is ridiculous that that's such a positive for me, but it is.”
