A Minnesota United side weathering speculation over star player James Rodriguez’s health will attempt to earn another road win Saturday night when it faces a San Diego FC squad frustrated with its recent form.
Minnesota (2-2-2, 8 points) recorded a 2-1 win last Saturday at the Los Angeles Galaxy despite the absence of Rodriguez, a star for Colombia’s World Cup squad.
The 34-year-old suffered from severe dehydration while on international duty in a friendly against France late last month and required hospitalization for three days.
And rumors swirled that the 2014 World Cup Golden Boot winner and 2024 Copa America Golden Ball recipient had rhabdomyolysis, a serious disease that causes muscle breakdown.
The club released a statement strongly denying that aspect this week.
“James reported to the club’s training facility today, Monday, April 6, and participated in a supervised return-to-activity session,” the statement read. “His reintegration into full team training will follow the protocols established by the club’s medical department and will be guided entirely by his clinical progress. The club and our medical professionals can unequivocally state there has been no clinical or laboratory evidence of rhabdomyolysis.”
Rodriguez participated in the majority of training on Wednesday, but it’s unclear whether he will be available Saturday.
San Diego (3-1-2, 11 points) enters the contest winless in its last four matches across all competitions after picking up victories in five out of its first six.
For manager Mikey Varas, while an exit from CONCACAF Champions Cup play against Toluca last month was disappointing, the recent league performances have been more discouraging.
Despite goals from Marcus Ingvartsen and Anders Dreyer, San Diego was held to a 2-2 home draw against Real Salt Lake before the March international break. After it, Varas’ side fell 3-0 at San Jose last Saturday.
In both matches, his side was hurt by red cards, received respectively by defenders Christopher McVey and Manu Duah.
“We’re an ambitious club and we’re ambitious people, and we hold ourselves to a very high standard,” Varas said. “We’ve had too many red cards, too many penalty kicks (conceded) and too many moments of the game that we played a little bit more into the hands of the opponent and less into our strengths.”
–Field Level Media
