When New England goalkeeper Preston Burpo and defender Darrius Barnes crossed paths as part of a shared effort to thwart Columbus midfielder Eddie Gaven from scoring his second goal of the evening, the subsequent collision took its toll on Barnes.
As Burpo slid to make the first of two quick saves on Gaven in the 61st minute to keep the score tied in the Revolution's eventual 3-2 defeat to the Crew on Saturday night, he caught Barnes with his studs and caused the second-year defender to spend the next several minutes determining whether or not he could play through his right foot injury.
With the Revolution robbed of their depth in central defense due to a series of injuries and the match finely poised at 2-2, Barnes opted to muddle through the pain in an attempt to help his side secure a point.
“There were definitely concerns because it was a foot injury,” Barnes told MLSsoccer.com after the match. “It was hard to get back out there and get things going a bit. Once I settled in for a little bit and let it cool off, it felt a little bit better. It definitely wasn't 100 percent for the rest of the game. I just had to gut it out for the team.”
Gutting it out meant working through the pain for several minutes after the initial blow and coping with the lingering discomfort for the remainder of the match.
“It was definitely painful,” Barnes said. “For the rest of the game, I didn't really have any push or any explosion off of it. It was a little tough, but I knew [that my team needed me], so I gutted it out.”
While Barnes made it through the remainder of the game, his injury will likely impact his availability for Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup play-in match with New York.
Barnes said on Saturday night that he expected to have X-rays taken when he returned to New England and Tweeted on Sunday that he planned to use crutches as a precaution until his scheduled X-rays on Monday morning. He then spent Monday's light training session receiving treatment for his injury, according to a team official.
