Minnesota United FC likely will be without 10 players, six of them starters, when the Loons (0-2-1) travel to the New England Revolution (0-2-0) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
A combination of injuries, national team call-ups and a suspension could leave United one-man short of a full 18-man match-day squad.
Draftee Thomas de Villardi joined the injured ranks Wednesday when he left practice on crutches, keeping weight on his left leg. The defender, who has played left-back for United in the preseason, had just sent in his finished contract to the league Monday and recently recovered from a sprained ankle hurt in the final preseason match.
Assistant coach Mark Watson said it was a noncontact injury, and the team will wait for the results from a MRI to know the extent of it.
De Villardi is the fifth injured player for United. Goalkeeper John Alvbage continued to train separately Wednesday because of a knee laceration suffered in the Atlanta match March 12. Defender Joe Greenspan joined in on training for the second day while third-choice goalkeeper Patrick McLain watched from the sidelines. Both are recovering from concussions, and coach Adrian Heath said Tuesday it would probably be too soon to see Alvbage, Greenspan or McLain play at the weekend.
Midfielder Bernardo Anor is also still on the disabled list because of a leg injury.
"They're starting to add up a little bit," Watson said of the injuries. "If we're looking just at Thomas' case, it's a really tough one because he's worked hard.
'' ... He was doing really well, and he's just kind of got going again. And he's looked sharp since coming back from that first injury. So we feel really bad for him."
