MONTREAL – Felipe's dream season will not have a happy ending.
A week after he missed only his second game of the season, last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Houston, Felipe will undergo sports hernia surgery, the Montreal Impact announced on Saturday morning. He will miss the last two games of the expansion club's season.
It had been more than a week since the 22-year-old last trained with his teammates.
“He’s been playing with it for a long time, but he’s a competitor,” Marsch told MLSsoccer.com on Friday. “He tells me he wants to play, and I’ve had to actually pull back. But it’s gotten to the point where he’s actually started pulling himself out, which is a good indication to us that there’s more in there than we initially thought.”
With only two games remaining this season, the Impact wanted to be cautious about Felipe's condition, all the more so given that his first symptoms appeared approximately three months ago.
Felipe, who last plied his trade in Switzerland, adapted with ease to the North American game, playing in 30 of the Impact’s 32 games this season. He is the club’s top assist provider with 10, has scored four goals and was voted No. 5 in the 2012 24 Under 24 ranking on MLSsoccer.com.
