MONTREAL – The Impact beat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 last Saturday, but for a moment, the air got sucked out of Stade Saputo.
In the 56th minute, Ignacio Piatti couldn’t cope with the pain in his left knee. He went down. The fans looked concerned. His teammates looked concerned.
Even San Jose’s Pablo Pintos looked concerned; it was he who signaled to the Montreal bench for a sub.
But you needn’t worry about Piatti’s tendonitis, head coach Frank Klopas said after the game, and so he insisted on Wednesday morning.
“I just think we have to be careful,” Klopas told reporters. “It’s nothing serious, but more than anything, it’s something that he needs to rest, with the amount of games that he’s played, to be completely healed.”
In eight games with his new club in all competitions, Piatti has revitalized Montreal’s attack, his dribbling abilities and array of tricks helping him to five goals and three assists in 620 minutes. He has thus played only half of his eight games in full due to his knee problems.
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While Piatti skipped Montreal’s Tuesday session, he did train on Wednesday morning. Klopas described him as “very sharp” in practice, but his involvement in Saturday’s game at Columbus (7:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE) is still up in the air.
“From the warm-up, he felt good,” Klopas said. “He played, but toward the end, it started acting up again, so it’s one of those things where, for me, we have to assess with the medical staff inside, and then maybe it’s a situation where he just needs to be off his feet for a week or 10 days to be completely healed.
“We just have to make the right decision.”
