SANDY, Utah – Jordan Allen's first campaign with Real Salt Lake has turned out to be very brief.
“Jordan is getting surgery,” RSL head coach Jeff Cassar told reporters on Tuesday, confirming a season-ending operation for his rookie midfielder that is set for Thursday. “It's his knee.”
Allen appeared in just the first two regular-season matches of the year, playing just a total of nine minutes. In the second game, he suffered an ankle injury when he was fouled from behind, and that apparently aggravated a knee injury.
He was just the sixth player to be signed out of the RSL-Arizona Academy, and he was expected to contribute first-team minutes right away, not just in midfield, but in defense and attack as well.
That will have to wait until at least 2015.
As for the rest of the team, Real Salt Lake may soon be missing more players to World Cup duty (goalkeeper Nick Rimando, midfielder Kyle Beckerman and forward Alvaro Saborio) than they are to injury.
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Outside back Rich Balchan, who suffered an adductor strain, is “looking good” after playing 90 minutes in RSL's Reserve League victory over Colorado on Sunday. Defender Kwame Watson-Siriboe may even see action soon, 11 months after suffering a torn right ACL.
And forward Robbie Findley, who hasn't seen action with the first team this season after undergoing offseason knee surgery, played 45 minutes in the reserve game on Sunday and is getting close to “putting himself on the field for a choice to be in the 18,” Cassar said.
That's not expected to be on Saturday, when RSL host FC Dallas, but it could be “soon.”
