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Minnesota United has a hole to fill in the midfield after losing versatile Hassani Dotson to knee surgery.

The Loons will try to overcome Dotson’s absence when they face Real Salt Lake on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

Dotson was injured during the first half of last weekend’s 2-2 tie with the visiting Los Angeles Galaxy. He sustained meniscus damage in his right knee, underwent surgery on Wednesday and is expected to miss multiple months.

“It’s really disappointing for Hassani,” Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay said. “He started the season so well and he’s a reliable guy and a large part in what we do.”

Doston is in his seventh season with Minnesota United (2-1-2, 8 points) and has one goal in five matches this season. He scored a career-high five goals last season and has 17 total in his MLS career.

Minnesota is unbeaten in its last four games, tying the last two after winning the previous two.

Real Salt Lake (2-3-0, 6 points) is coming off a 1-0 home loss to FC Dallas.

Salt Lake played a man short after forward Ariath Piol received a red card for a dangerous tackle in the 23rd minute.

Dallas scored just before halftime and Salt Lake was unable to get the equalizer.

It was the second straight MLS home setback for Salt Lake.

Goalkeeper Rafael Cabral is hoping for a bounce-back effort.

“We want to be consistent and win more games,” Cabral said. “We’ve got a very good team and our atmosphere, our friendship, is very nice, so we’ve got everything to have a great season. I think we’ve been doing well, but now we have to get more results.”

Nobody on RSL has scored more than one goal this season.

Meanwhile, Kelvin Yeboah has four for Minnesota and fellow forward Tani Oluwaseyi has two.

This is the first meeting since the Loons swept RSL in the first round of last season’s playoffs.

The teams played to a scoreless tie in the first leg at Sandy, Utah before Minnesota won 5-4 on penalty kicks. The second leg was tied at 1-1 after regulation before host Minnesota prevailed 3-1 on penalty kicks to advance.

The squads also played to two ties in the regular season.

–Field Level Media