Reports: Injuries piling up for Houston Dynamo

The New York Red Bulls have a few injury problems at the moment: Gonzalo Veron and Mike Grella are both sidelined; Connor Lade has just got back to match-readiness after a long lay-off; Gideon Baah is ruled out for the season. But every team must cope with injury issues over the course of any season. And RBNY’s next opponent, Houston Dynamo, is coping with more than a few of its own.

Per the Houston Chronicle’s Corey Roepken, the Dynamo’s Juan David Cabezas is the latest player to be ruled out of the team’s match againt RBNY on April 1. An off-season addition to the squad, Cabezas had logged one start and two appearances in Houston’s MLS 2017 campaign to date.

The Dynamo will also be without Honduras international Romell Quioto, who returned from national team duty having suffered a dislocated shoulder. Quioto had played in all three of the Dynamo’s league games this season, and has three MLS goals to his name this year - including a Goal of the Week winner.

Further, Houston’s defensive depth is a little constrained by an injury to veteran defender Agus, and George Malki - promoted from Rio Grande Valley FC Toros in the off-season - is out for the year.

And two senior members of the current squad - Panamanian defender Adolfo Machado and Honduran forward Alberth Elis - played a full part in their respective national teams’ World Cup qualifying games last week, which has Houston head coach Wilmer Cabrera mindful of the need to monitor their fitness and ability to handle another competitive game after a shortened week of training with their Dynamo teammates.

Both RBNY and the Dynamo will be missing a few players they’d rather have available on April 1. The match will be as much a test of squad depth as it will be of early-season form for both sides.