Minnesota United's Ozzie Alonso injured in return to lineup

Minnesota United started Sunday's 4-0 victory over Real Salt Lake with striker Luis Amarilla and Ethan Finlay out with injuries that concern coach Adrian Heath, then lost captain Ozzie Alonso, who went down clutching his left leg, in the 18th minute in his return to the starting lineup.

Afterward, Heath said he believes Finlay has a knee meniscus injury about which "we fear the worst for the next four, five weeks."

Finlay will be evaluated further this week, as will Amarilla, who didn't play because of what Heath called "a little issue with his ankle" that has lingered for a couple of months.

"We thought he would get better, but it's not," Heath said. "It has been gradually getting worse. We'll have a better idea of a time frame for both of them [by Wednesday's game against FC Dallas]."

The Loons played on at Allianz Field with only one healthy striker, Mason Toye, who played the first 64 minutes before Jacori Hayes subbed for him. Raheem Edwards played up at that striker position for the game's final 20-plus minutes.

Hassani Dotson entered for Alonso. Heath said he will know more about Alonso on Monday.

"But if it's a hamstring, it doesn't look good for Wednesday or maybe next weekend," Heath said.

"You're going to miss somebody who arguably has been the best No. 6 in the league for 10 years," Heath said. "I know that Seattle thought they missed him when they decided to cut Ozzie loose. You're going to miss someone of his quality. Not only his quality, but his personality, what he is and what he means to the group, what he means to the opposition. There's an awful lot more to Ozzie than just playing. Even the other night we missed that.

"Down the road it's going to be a big void to fill. We know that."

Heath remade his starting lineup Sunday yet again after he had swapped out attacking units in both losses at Dallas and Houston. Defender Jose Aja returned to his center-back spot as well while Amarilla (ankle) and Finlay each took a knock in training and didn't.

Heath has juggled the lineup because of that busy schedule in which the Loons are playing twice a week for consecutive weeks. Real Salt Lake coach Freddy Juarez did the same, but even more so: Juarez swapped in 10 new players who didn't play in Wednesday's 2-2 draw with Seattle and left only defender Justen Glad in his starting 11.

"One or two people thought we changed it too much," Heath said. "But if we look at what a lot of other teams did Wednesday, a lot of teams changed formation because you can't just do it Saturday-Wednesday, Saturday-Wednesday for four, five weeks."

• Newly acquired defender Bakaye Dibassy was available as a designated substitute but did not make his MLS debut.