TUKWILA, Wash. – After missing his team’s 2-1 victory over Toronto FC last weekend with a personal health issue, Seattle Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid returned to the team on Thursday and presided over its training session at Starfire Soccer Complex.
"On Saturday early morning I had a health issue that required me to go to the hospital and they kept me in the hospital until Tuesday," he told reporters. "The details of it are for me and my family. But I've gotten the okay to go from here."
However, the Sounders will have to get by without their coach for one more game.
Schmid said he is feeling better but doctors want him to remain in the Seattle area for a week, meaning he won’t travel with the team for their road match on Saturday with the San Jose Earthquakes (10:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
“I’m not going to travel this weekend,” Schmid said. “Not because I can’t travel. I could fly, that’s not an issue. But the doctors wanted me to stay in this area for at least a week so I should be back on the bench [on Sept. 19] against Vancouver.”
Longtime assistant Brian Schmetzer will handle the Sounders' coaching duties again this weekend after serving in the same capacity against Toronto. Schmetzer coached the Sounders for seven seasons when they were a USL first division team and has filled in for Schmid in past years when he had to miss games for family functions and a one-match suspension in 2012.
“We’re pretty compatible,” Schmetzer told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve won a lot of games together. There’s not a massive change when I take training. … It’s just subtle changes based on the differences that Sigi and I have, but they’re small.”
Sounders captain Brad Evans said seeing coach back on the training ground was a welcome sight for the Seattle players as they gear up for a huge road game with San Jose that carries a great deal of weight in the Western Conference playoff race.
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“It’s great to have him back with the boys,” Evans said. “I know this is where he wants to be. Even if he’s not 1,000 percent, he’ll be here just like we are. We want to be out here no matter what, through the good and through the bad. Sometimes when you’re injured or when you have a little bit of a health issue, you come back with the boys and it can spur you on.”
As for any implications the situation could carry for his future in coaching, Schmid says he doesn’t believe there will be any.
“This is what I love doing, and this is what I’m still capable of doing,” Schmid said. “It shouldn’t affect anything from a longevity point of view.”
