MLS Injury update: Andre Blake out, Lorenzo Insigne expected back soon
The 2023 Major League Soccer season kicked off on Saturday, February 25, seeing teams finally take the field after months.
Players have since stepped up, inspiring record-breaking victories and stunning goals.
But several figures struggled to get back into the action, resulting in injuries. Here's the injury report after Matchday 3...
1. Gregore out for Inter Miami
Inter Miami captain Gregore will be out 'indefinitely' after suffering a Lisfranc injury in their Matchday 3 defeat at New York City FC.
The midfielder’s recovery timeline will be determined when undergoing a procedure at Baptist Health on Tuesday. Before knowing the diagnosis, head coach Phil Neville said postgame Saturday he feared the worst and called Gregore 'the heart and soul of our football club'.
Gregore first joined Miami in 2021 from Brazilian side Bahia. He managed eight assists across 62 regular-season games, inspiring the team to the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2022.
The injury is a huge blow for Phil Neville, as he depended on the player to lead the backline. Without Gregore, the coach will likely lean on Victor Ulloa to take over or look for an external solution while the MLS Primary Transfer Window remains open.
2. Andre Blake injured
Andre Blake picked up a groin injury during Philadelphia Union’s match against the Chicago Fire on Saturday, forcing an early exit.
The Jamaican goalkeeper appeared to get injured in the 30th minute while sending a defensive-third free kick upfield. Though he quickly ran back into Philadelphia's goal to save a header from Chicago forward Kacper Przybyłko, it was too much to handle.
He was replaced by substitute goalkeeper Joe Bendik in the 33rd minute, walking off under his own power at Subaru Park while limping.
"Obviously he'll get an MRI. With a groin injury, I always fear the worst," Head coach Jim Curtin said.
"Again, Andre has been a quick healer in the past. Don’t want to speculate too much until we get pictures, but he’s certainly, as you guys could see with your eyeballs, he felt it, he felt his groin kinda go. So, sometimes these things take a week, sometimes they take four weeks, sometimes they take eight weeks."
3. Lorenzo Insigne update
Bob Bradely revealed the team expected Lorenzo Insigne to be back from injury on Saturday for the match against the Columbus Crew, but he wasn’t quite ready. The Italian suffered a groin injury during Toronto’s season-opener against D.C. United, and has yet to see the field since.
“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,” head coach and sporting director Bob Bradley told reporters after Saturday’s match.
“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. 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.
“We did a scan, I think there’s potentially another scan to make sure there’s nothing more. The initial scan was very minor, but he’s still feeling something with certain actions and we want to be very careful with that, so I don’t have a clear idea of what that one means.”