FRISCO, Texas – A bad situation nearly got worse on Friday as short-handed FC Dallas were forced to deal with a report by by Spanish-language outlet Al Día that playmaking maestro Mauro Díaz was out for the season with a knee injury.
The club shot that report down, but head coach Oscar Pareja was clearly exasperated with the situation.
“People start reading between lines and everybody has the right to say or write about it, and I’m not going to control that," Pareja told reporters at Friday's training session. “With Mauro, we wait for the doctors to tell us what is the next step. We are gathering information. The doctors want to be more specific about what is happening.”
The 23-year-old Young Designated Player is officially listed as day-to-day by the club, but he appears unlikely to appear on Sunday when FC Dallas host the New York Red Bulls (3 pm ET, UniMas), the first of three games in seven days for the Texas club.
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Díaz was subbed out of FCD's eventual loss to D.C. United last Saturday and has not trained since. His potential absence from the side looms large over a team already dealing with injuries to defender Kellyn Acosta, midfielder Peter Luccin, winger Andrés Escobar and defender George John.
On top of that, defender Zach Loyd and midfielder Michel both received red cards in the D.C. loss and are not available vs. New York.
After going undefeated in their first five matches, FC Dallas have lost two of their last three matches and have been caught by Seattle for first place in the Western Conference.
“It has been a challenging start,” Pareja said.
