An appearance in Sunday's Eastern Conference Championship second leg at D.C. United is looking less and less likely for Houston's Adam Moffat. But don't count him out quite yet.
The Dynamo midfielder was listed as out on Tuesday’s league injury report for a chest injury and a concussion, having suffered those injuries from being on the receiving end of a crunching Robbie Russell tackle that cut his afternoon short after 25 minutes of action.
“I’ve been hit hard before, but that was a really good one,” Moffat told MLSsoccer.com Wednesday. “I remember getting hit and I felt like I was winded. The next 10 or 15 minutes that I was playing I didn’t feel great at all. I was a little bit all over the place. I was a little unaware of what was going on. Once I came out, the next 10 or 15 minutes I was remembering stuff. It was weird.”
Despite the early prognosis, Moffat is holding out hope that he will be ready to make a weekend return. To do that he would have to receive clearance by passing MLS’ concussion protocol test, which involves an extensive battery of evaluations that includes running, heading the ball and contact that is geared to ensure a player is ready to return.
“I feel fine,” the midfielder said. “It’s a head injury so there’s protocol to follow and procedures and stuff. So far everything’s been good. The stuff we’ve done so far has been great. If it keeps going I’d love to get out there but we just need to see how it progresses.”
Also listed on Tuesday’s injury report was the trio of Calen Carr, Ricardo Clark and Jermaine Taylor, all three of whom missed last Sunday’s first leg in Houston.
Taylor is listed as probable on the latest report as he battles back from a knee sprain that has kept him out of the last two matches. Clark and Carr, listed as questionable, have been relegated to work on the side and the latter has his eyes set on using the week off to get back in the lineup.
“It’s still very early in the week so you don’t want to rush anything, but I’m hoping to be back for the weekend,” Carr said. “We’ve started really slow, just kind of doing some rest and strengthening work indoors and am starting to transition to doing some on the field stuff; then trying to ramp it up throughout the week with the mindset of being available for Sunday.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
