If the playoff-chasing Houston Dynamo are to get a result against Montreal on Saturday, they may have to do so without the 2011 MLS MVP runner-up.
Brad Davis suffered a left calf strain early in Tuesday’s training, ending his day and prompting the club to list him as out on the midweek injury report. Houston had an off-day Wednesday and will return to training Thursday morning.
While the Dynamo are holding out hope that Davis will be involved, head coach Dominic Kinnear knows that the show will go on either way.
“We’d love to have him available, but it looks like he’s not going to be able to play and we have to put together a team that’s going to be able to win the game on Saturday without him,” Kinnear told MLSsoccer.com on Wednesday.
Davis, who missed two games in April with a calf injury, notched his 12th assist of the season this past Saturday when he set up Ricardo Clark’s game-winner in a 2-0 victory over the New England Revolution. He is currently tied for fourth among MLS assist leaders this season and set a career high in goals in 2012 with seven to go with his double-digit assists.
If Davis does not recover before the weekend, the Dynamo have several options to fill in depending on which formation, the 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, they employ. Colin Clark, who has shown well on the left side in CONCACAF Champions League play, and newcomer Giles Barnes who has played on the left are among that group along with a player such as Je-Vaughn Watson.
Houston currently clings to the fifth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, their 49 points just one more than sixth-place Columbus.
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
