Bob Bradley provides Lorenzo Insigne injury update

After a poor start to the season, Toronto FC hopes their talisman Lorenzo Insigne can quickly return from injury.

The start of the 2023 MLS Season has not been kind to Toronto FC. After losing Lorenzo Insigne to injury during their opening match against DC United, Bob Bradley's men have only managed to pick up two points in three games. 

While hoping to have the Italy international back in time for their match against the Columbus Crew, he wasn’t quite fit enough to make the 18. It remains to be seen if the 31-year-old will be back in time to face Inter Miami on Saturday. 

“It’s a minor groin strain but there’s some plays yesterday where you can tell he’s feeling it still a little bit and that was still the case today so that’s how the decision was made,” said Bradley after their game against the Crew.

“You guys know he’s trained during the week, and we’ve tried to be very aware of how he felt every day, and yesterday there were still some moments where he felt something in the groin and we just didn’t want to take any chances.”

Without Insigne on the pitch, Toronto has turned to fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi to help carry the scoring load. However, Insigne is a crucial piece to Bradley’s attacking puzzle; without him, they have struggled. Against the Crew, the Canadian side was outshot by 17-7 and only had an expected goal tally of 0.84.

“I’m hopeful for Lorenzo, but you’ve got to see what happens as he’s training and moving… There still seems to be a little pain in certain moments as he has to reach out for a ball, the same way that it happened on the play in D.C.”

Toronto FC will look to pick up their first win of the season as they take on Inter Miami on Saturday, March 18th.