TORONTO—Breathe easy, Toronto FC fans: Sebastian Giovinco is a little banged up, but the hope is that he should be okay and that he won’t be sidelined for any significant stretch of time.
Giovinco, TFC’s leading scorer and the reigning Major League Soccer MVP, had to be subbed out of Saturday’s road game against the New York Red Bulls after only 22 minutes with a non-contact adductor injury. Toronto trailed 1-0 when the Italian came out, and conceded twice more within minutes of his departure en route to a 3-0 loss.
Coach Greg Vanney on Monday said he’s hopeful that Giovinco’s injury isn’t that serious, although his star forward remains questionable for Wednesday’s home match when the Reds host the Montreal Impact in the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship semifinals.
“He went for MRI this afternoon, and we’re just waiting for the read on that. Hopefully, sooner rather than later we’ll have a good prognosis of where we are in the short term,” Vanney explained prior to Monday evening’s training session.
“There’s no indication that it’ll be anything long-term; the question I think is whether he will or won’t be available for [Wednesday]. In talking to him he feels like he got out [of Saturday’s game] before there was too much [damage] sustained.”
Even if the MRI results come back positive, you’d have to think Vanney won’t rush Giovinco back into the line-up for Wednesday’s match. Vanney could also sit the Italian next Wednesday for the return leg at Stade Saputo in Montreal. In fact, it might be wise to give Giovinco the extra time off, considering TFC doesn’t return to MLS action until June 18 when they host the LA Galaxy.
“That would be my hope—that he’d be ready by [June 18] and hopefully before then,” Vanney stated.
Giovinco looked to be in good spirits at BMO Field for the team’s Monday evening practice. He didn’t take part in the training session with his teammates; instead, he was expected do some rehab work on his own.
Any prolonged absence by Giovinco would be a massive blow for Toronto. The Italian has eight goals and five assists in 13 MLS games this season. Incredibly, he’s figured in 13 of Toronto’s 14 goals, or 93 percent of the offensive output.
Aside from Giovinco, Toronto will be missing three other players for Wednesday’s match: captain Michael Bradley and Canadian midfielder Will Johnson (national team duty), and forward Jozy Altidore (hamstring injury).
The timing of the Canadian Championship semifinals isn’t the best, as they conflict with a pair of international friendlies the Canadian national team will play in Austria against Azerbaijan (June 3) and Uzbekistan (June 7).
Johnson will play for Canada in the first game against Azerbaijan, but he confirmed last week that TFC is talking to Canada Soccer about getting him released early so that he can be available for the second leg in Montreal. Vanney said Monday he’s hopeful that Johnson will be available to face the Impact for the return match.
“We’ve worked through that. It seems to be favourable from our side… it sounds like we’ll be able to work something out. We’re on ‘let’s see how this first game goes’ [with Soccer Canada], and then finalize it, but there’s preliminary hope that we can get [Will] back,” Vanney stated.
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