For the second time in as many months, Tim Cahill is set for a spell on the sidelines.
Cahill could be out for up to a month after suffering a torn ligament in his right ankle in the opening minutes of the New York Red Bulls’ 2-1 victory over D.C. United this past weekend. Cahill sustained the knock on a tackle from Dejan Jakovic in the eighth minute of the match at Red Bull Arena, but the Australian international played through it before ultimately being subbed off in the 58th.
Cahill had only recently returned to the field for New York after tearing a PCL in his right knee in a July 27 victory over Real Salt Lake, and, needless to say, Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke is not happy with once again losing one if his most important players.
“I’m a bit angry that now within two months we have two tackles on Cahill that sideline him,” Petke told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday afternoon. “This time, it‘s going to be around three to four weeks, last time it was close to three weeks. Two tackles, that he tears a PCL and now he has ligament damage, and both of them go unpunished [in the games].
“That was, to me, a clear penalty-kick call. Now don’t get me wrong, if [the referee is] playing advantage, great job to play the advantage and we scored on it. But I was a bit surprised, curious as to why there was nothing even said after that to the defender who went in with his studs from the side. Now we have the same key player missing a chunk of the season because of it, so we’re not very happy obviously about that.”
Cahill will not be the only Red Bulls player unavailable in the coming weeks. Roy Miller and Connor Lade are also dealing with injuries that will prevent them from suiting up in at least the next two games, and Brandon Barklage is also dealing with a knock.
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“Roy Miller has something in his Achilles so he’s looking at three weeks, I would say,” said Petke. “Connor Lade, we’re looking around two more weeks to see how he’s feeling, he’s still got an issue with his knee. Brandon Barklage is day-to-day, he has a strain in his glute muscle on the side of his hip, which he was feeling leading up to the [D.C. United] game but he felt confident, he said he felt fine and it sort of just went on him.”
The Red Bulls return to action on Sunday against the Houston Dynamo (5 pm ET, UniMas).
