Minnesota United has mostly had good luck with injuries this season, but that luck seems to be turning at the worst possible time.
On Friday, manager Eric Ramsay confirmed that striker Kelvin Yeboah and defender Carlos Harvey will both miss at least the remainder of the regular season, which ends Oct. 18. Yeboah injured his hamstring against Austin on Wednesday when a defender took him down, while Harvey’s meniscus injury that kept him out of that game will require surgery.
Ramsay suggested he was hopeful that Yeboah could return for the playoffs, but it appears that the Loons would need a longer playoff run for Harvey to have a chance of playing again this season.
“When it rains, it pours, doesn’t it?” Ramsay said. “It’s a good measure of us as a group, a good measure of us as a staff, and I think we handle these situations well.”
Ramsay referred to Yeboah’s injury as a “bitter pill to swallow,” given that the Loons sold Tani Oluwaseyi, their other established striker, to Villareal in the summer transfer window.
“We’re definitely having to focus on the silver linings at the moment, and make sure that we are really positive about the opportunity that this presents for Darius [Randell], for Mo [Mamadou Dieng], and for us maybe reinventing a couple of players again,” Ramsay said.
Wednesday against Austin, after Yeboah left the game injured in the first 30 minutes, the Loons played Robin Lod up front for a half-hour and then Bongokuhle Hlongwane as a center-forward for the remainder of the 120 minutes.
“Someone like Bongi, as an example, who’s very adept at playing as a number nine – as you saw as the game went on, we could certainly look to him as well,” said Ramsay. “I don’t think we’re without options, but obviously none of them are quite as clinical as Kelvin or Tani.”
