Diego Rossi among Columbus Crew players who could miss first game of MLS Cup playoffs
The Crew could be without forward Diego Rossi and multiple others, for Game One of their MLS Cup first-round series against the New York Red Bulls.
The Crew's availability report ahead of the first round lists four players as either out or questionable. Rossi is questionable with a back injury, which developed into an issue over the past week of training, rather than being the result of one specific hit.
Rossi is the only player who has appeared in every Crew game this season, including all tournament games and the Aston Villa friendly. In regular-season play, Rossi recorded 12 goals and 11 assists.
Along with Rossi, midfielder Taha Habroune (torso) and defender Steven Moreira (ankle) are listed as questionable. Defender Malte Amundsen is unavailable for Game One, as he is out with an adductor injury.
It is unclear when Amundsen or Habroune sustained their injuries.
Moreira has been recovering from his ankle injury since the 3-2 loss to Inter Miami on Oct. 2 and has missed three games already. On Friday, coach Wilfried Nancy was unsure if Moreira would be ready to return.
"We need to see a little bit more," Nancy said.
Against the Red Bulls in the final game of the regular season, midfielder Mo Farsi was sidelined with a concussion, which he suffered during his time with the Algerian national team earlier this month.
Unlike Moreira's injury, Nancy was optimistic that Farsi's concussion would clear up in time for the playoffs, and the availability report indicates that is the case.
Over the previous 48 games, the Crew had stayed mostly healthy, with only goalkeeper Evan Bush being sidelined long-term after breaking his arm in April.
Sean Zawadzki able to make return for Columbus Crew ahead of MLS Cup playoffs
Even after Sean Zawadzki appeared to get hurt two minutes into a Campeones Cup game, he played an additional 75 minutes. The team would later learn Zawadzki had a punctured lung and a rib injury.
Doctors originally gave Zawadzki multiple possible timelines for his return, leaving both Zawadzki and the Crew uncertain if he'd be on the field before the MLS Cup playoffs.
"It was an injury that I couldn’t really do treatment for," Zawadzki said. "It was, kind of, time will tell and take it day by day.
"It obviously had a huge impact on my breathing, a punctured lung. So, it really took time to get that to completely heal, and that’s what worried me the most. The rib was going to take time, obviously, but I think the breathing and that side of things really scared me the most."
The recovery process included Zawadzki and the medical staff pushing to see how much physical activity and contact he could tolerate while monitoring his breathing. Every day, Zawadzki was hoping to no longer feel pain from the simple act of trying to breathe.
Leading up to the Crew's final regular-season game against the New York Red Bulls, Zawadzki took part in full training sessions, which indicated to coach Wilfried Nancy that Zawadzki was ready to return.
On Oct. 19, less than a month after he sustained the injury, Zawadzki entered the Red Bulls game at the 73-minute mark.
"Means a lot, especially to get in the last regular-season game, to get back in the swing of things and to get that feel again," Zawadzki said. "It’s different doing stuff off to the side, and the contact you get from there. ... Being actually in a game scenario again, there's nuances of the game and you get your brain thinking again.”
Though Zawadzki admits there's still a lingering feeling of discomfort, the midfielder says he's "pretty close to 100%" ahead of Columbus' best-of-three series against the Red Bulls in the first round of the playoffs.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Diego Rossi questionable for Columbus Crew in MLS Cup first round game
