D.C. United defender Rodney Wallace will be out for the next six weeks, at least, after learning he’d fractured his left fibula against Real Salt Lake on Saturday night.
Wallace snuck in behind Alvaro Saborio in the 19th minute just as the Costa Rican striker was about to swing at the ball for a shot on goal. Instead, he caught Wallace square on the back of the leg.
“It was kind of an unfortunate play,” said United head coach Curt Onalfo at practice Monday. “Hopefully he has a speedy recovery. The silver lining is after Thursday, we have quite a break so that’s going to help with minimizing the games that he misses and we just got to make sure he has a speedy recovery.”
Onalfo said United will also be without defender Juan Manuel Peña for Thursday’s match in Seattle. The 37-year-old defender – who has lasted the full 90 minutes in only three of eight league starts – limped off in the 62nd minute with an apparent groin injury that is expected to sideline him for a week or so.
“We have a group that knows how to persevere,” said Onalfo. “We’ll make the best of the situation, and we have guys that are ready to step in and do a good job. I thought Devon [McTavish] came in and was really solid and Jordan [Graye] did a good job on the left, and Julius came in and looked solid as well. Julius [James] has played really well over the last two weeks as well, in the AC Milan game in the second half and then a real solid 120 minutes against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday. We feel like we have good cover and guys that can step in and do a real solid job.
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