Jul. 25—Minnesota United will be without one-fourth of its attacking foursome for possibly four weeks.
Just when the club thought goals were around the corner for its new quartet of Franco Fragapane and Adrien Hunou joining Emanuel Reynoso and Robin Lod, Fragapane went down with a thigh injury.
The Argentine left winger might be out two weeks or his absence could stretch more than a month, a source told the Pioneer Press on Saturday. Fragapane’s injury is similar to Niko Hansen’s to start the season, the source said, and Hansen missed six games from the season opener on April 16 to May 29.
On Saturday, Hansen was plugged in with those three other attackers in a 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers at Allianz Field.
“It’s a disappointment losing Franco,” United manager Adrian Heath said. “But at the end of the day, it’s part and parcel of professional sport. People are going to get injured, you know. High-level athletes get injured. We’ve been relatively good this year when you look at our injury record.”
The foursome of Reynoso, Lod, Hunou and Fragapane have not combined for a goal in 137 minutes together across two games this season; their grouping was delayed months due to Hunou and Fragapane’s transfers taking longer to be completed, and then Lod being away with Finland for the European Championships.
“(Fragapane) is probably going to miss the next couple of weeks, I would think, at least,” Heath said. “Then we’ll have to get to the drawing board and see what we can do with them all. In the meantime, we will get on with it. We’ve got depth.”
In their previous game against the Timbers, Fragapane assisted on Hunou’s goal in the second minute of a 1-0 win at Providence Park on June 26. Fragapane has two goals and three assists in 499 minutes this season.
BOXALL NEARS RETURN
Loons captain center back Michael Boxall was not ready to return from his thigh/groin injury against Portland but is expected to be back either Wednesday against LAFC or Saturday vs. Vancouver, a source said.
The Loons did gain one of their regulars on the back line, with right back Romain Metanire plugged back in after he missed three games due to a trip to France to obtain his green card.
ABILA OUT
High-priced forward, Ramon Abila was a conspicuous absence from the club’s 20-man roster Saturday. Abila, who has two goals in 263 minutes in 2021, is coming off a red-card suspension served against Sounders on July 18 and trained in Blaine this week.
“It was the way we thought the squad had worked,” Heath said of Abila’s absence. “The fact that he had missed a week or so. We picked a squad that we thought would win us the game, and we did.”
Abila is earning $1.1 million while on loan from Boca Juniors, making him a very expensive scratch. The Loons subbed on journeyman striker Juan Agudelo, who is being paid one-fifth of Abila’s wages.
TRAVEL PLANS
Minnesota will remain out west between next week’s games. They will stay in L.A. after Wednesday’s game and then travel to Sandy, Utah, to face the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday. The Whitecaps, who have played home games at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy because of Canada’s coronavirus protocols, will return to playing at their home stadium in British Columbia in August.