KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In the past, when Peter Vermes has been asked about the extent and severity of player injuries, one of his stock answers has been, “I don't know. I'm not a doctor.”
But a second straight year of injury woes has made Sporting Kansas City's manager and technical director, if not an expert, at least more conversant on the subject.
Take Thursday's weekly news conference, when Vermes used himself as a model to describe the sacroiliac joint soreness that will keep midfielder Paulo Nagamura out of Friday's home match against FC Dallas (9 pm ET; UniMas, UDN, UnivisionDeportes.com).
“He has a little pressure on his SI joint, so we shut him down,” Vermes said. “SI is – back here, in the lower back.”
So he's a doctor now?
“I'm becoming one,” Vermes said, smiling.
The serious side of Kansas City injury update is that Nagamura isn't the only player who won't be available when Sporting put their five-match unbeaten streak on the line against the Western Conference's second-place team.
Center forward Dom Dwyer is expected to miss a second straight match with neck soreness, after being a late scratch before last weekend's scoreless road draw against Seattle. Winger Jacob Peterson, who pulled up favoring his right hamstring in that match, is out for Friday as well.
“His is a contact injury,” Vermes said. “He got stepped on from behind and then pushed from behind, so then he had to overstretch to keep his balance, and that's kind of how he tweaked his hammy. It wasn't where he was just running, and so that was more of a forced injury as opposed to him doing it on his own.”
And while one of Sporting's left backs, Marcel de Jong, could return from a groin injury that has sidelined him for four matches, another – Seth Sinovic – will miss a third straight game because of a concussion sustained in a 1-1 draw at D.C. United on May 9.
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However, midfielder Roger Espinoza also could return on Friday, after missing two matches with a groin strain, and winger Graham Zusi should see more extensive action this week after his own return from concussion as a second-half sub against the Sounders.
“He's in a much better place than he was,” Vermes said. “I was very reluctant to throw him in the game last week, that 15 minutes or whatever he got. I think he was a little ticked at me that he didn't play a lot more, but I didn't care. I want to be especially careful with those guys, especially with the fact that they had the head injuries.
“It's not something that I feel comfortable with, and that's one of the reasons why we're taking our time with Seth as well, just because those two guys suffered at the same time and Seth's, the onset was a little later on. We're just going with the protocol and maybe extending it a little on our own and being a little more conservative.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
