Ahead of the club's road trip to Canada against CF Montreal on Saturday afternoon, Philadelphia Union Head Coach Jim Curtin provided an update on the status of the squad.
Sergio Santos
“It’s a minor hamstring strain and it is frustrating because he’s been in good form and then you lose him to these little setbacks. The positive is that its a very low grade 1 strain and I guess rather than play the remaining 80 minutes on a bad hamstring and risk doing it worse, he was proactive and came out of the game. It will be tight seeing if he can make this Montreal game because he gives us the speed dynamic that helps us so we are pushing to get him ready for this Montreal game and haven’t ruled him out yet. I think certainly by Minnesota at the latest he’s back with the group. It’s not major.”
Cory Burke
“He is ahead of schedule. When we heard there was a stress fracture in there you get scared but often times it comes down to pain tolerance and how quickly it heals to put it bluntly. He is ahead of pace but I don’t think he’ll make this weekend but certainly [Minnesota] is in the discussion and Nashville is in the discussion. We’d love to have another great attacker to add to our group. He was out on the field today running in a straight line so it was encouraging so he’s not too far off.”
Olivier Mbaizo
“Olivier picked up a knock which is why he didn’t start in the second game [for Cameroon]. He was pulled out in the warmups when he took a knock in his legs but he’ll be fine for the game. He’s in the building and is fine.”
Alvas Powell
“Alvas Powell picked up a small hamstring strain so he’s back with us.”
Jamiro Monteiro
“Jamiro Monteiro was here and trained fully today. He looked really sharp and confident.”
Ilsinho
“Ilsinho is still going to be out for this one as well.”
On Team Travel to Canada
“The rules that I know are that for the South American players it is more complicated getting their visas and getting over the border than say for the Jamaican players. There will be some last second stuff going on and it will be down to the wire.
[Jose] becomes the tricky one because he has a game in Chile on Thursday and you can do the math on the timing and turnaround. He has to land here and get a visa to enter Canada and that will be difficult, no two ways about it. We’ve taken every precaution and prepared for it as best we can but we’ll see but it will be a challenge.”
