UPDATE (Dec. 15, 7:40 pm ET): LAFC later provided an update that Diego Palacios' wife was doing well enough that the player will be traveling to Orlando on Tuesday night and will be available for Wednesday's game.
ORIGINAL (Dec. 15, 3:10 pm ET): LAFC are set to be without defender Diego Palacios when they take on Cruz Azul in the Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals at Exploria Stadium in Orlando on Wednesday.
With the first leg between the two sides called off as sports shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic back in March, Wednesday's game (10:30 pm ET | FS2, TUDN in US; TSN5 in Canada) will be a single-leg elimination to determine who will move on to the semifinals on Saturday.
After LAFC arrived in Florida to begin preparing for the match-up, head coach Bob Bradley told media that Palacios will miss the game due to personal reasons.
"Chiqui Palacios is not here with us at the moment," Bradley said. "His wife had some contractions yesterday morning and so we are sending our best wishes to Chiqui and his wife as we await word as to how things are going."
Bradley added that "everyone else has traveled, and the excitement for the group, I really think training in this last stretch has been really positive, you can tell the way the players are looking forward. And so we're very anxious to get on the field and get going.”
That includes midfielder Jose Cifuentes, who tested positive for COVID-19 last month, but has been training and will be available for the match.
Defender Marco Farfan, who LAFC acquired from the Portland Timbers on Sunday in exchange for $300,000 General Allocation Money, will not be available.
