FRISCO, Texas – For a brief moment on Wednesday night, no one in FC Dallas Stadium was worried about the outcome of the match. Everyone took a deep breath in the 53rd minute when FCD defender Carlos Rodríguez took a horrific spill and was stretchered off the field.
“From our understanding, he went to the hospital,” FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman told reporters. “It was a dislocation of the elbow. They put the elbow back in place, and he’s still there doing other tests.”
INJURY: Rodriguez shaken up on foul
At the time of Rodríguez’s injury, FC Dallas held a 1-0 lead over Real Salt Lake and had all the momentum on their side. According to Hyndman, the whole complexity of the match took a turn for the worse after the gruesome scene.
“I think when Carlos went down with a dislocation of the elbow, it must have taken a lot out of the players,” he said. “You don’t know what that does. You have a teammate that’s injured, and everybody is looking at it.”
Already plagued by a bevvy of injuries, Hyndman was forced to turn to Jackson, who just joined the club after being recalled from his loan to Brazilian first-division side Cruzeiro.
But Jackson and the rest of the Dallas squad couldn’t shake off the feelings of fear and worry as they allowed Real Salt Lake’s Emiliano Bonfigli to score the equalizer in the 72nd minute.
“You can call it an emergency,” Hyndman said. “I think when you go without four starters; it’s becoming a bit of an emergency. I was hoping to get Jackson on the field for the last 15 minutes. If we didn’t need him, then I probably wouldn’t have even put him on the field, but I felt that we needed to get something on the field that was at least going to be a threat.”
Midfielders Ricardo Villar, Andrew Jacobson and David Ferreira were all unavailable for Wednesday night’s game and are still recovering from injuries. To make matters worse, striker Blas Pérez was suspended earlier in the week by the MLS, but will return for Dallas' next game, against LA on Saturday.
“I think every coach gets frustrated with the injuries,” Hyndman said. “Unfortunately, it’s part of the game and sometimes, it doesn’t seem like it’s fair. As soon as you get one person healthy, we get Scott Sealy healthy and then we pick up another injury with Jair [Benítez]. Now that he’s back, Carlos is out.”
