Report: Darlington Nagbe sits out Atlanta United’s Monday training

A week is a long time in soccer, and missing a day or two of training in the build-up to a big game does not necessarily mean a player is out of contention for a place on the match-day roster.

So it is not the case that Darlington Nagbe is out of Atlanta United’s lineup for the first leg of the 2018 MLS Eastern Conference Final against New York Red Bulls on November 25. It is the case, however, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Doug Roberson, that Nagbe missed Atlanta’s training session on Monday, November 19.

At the end of last week, Atlanta head coach Tata Martino brushed off concerns about Nagbe’s fitness for the big game ahead. Absence from training on Monday doesn’t mean Nagbe won’t train on Tuesday, or Wednesday, or any of the other days remaining between now and Sunday’s showdown with RBNY.

Both the Red Bulls and Atlanta United are short-handed at training for now, with several players absent for international duty. Both teams should be expecting to have full squads by Wednesday or Thursday of this week - and it is then that absences from the training ground might be regarded as significant to the lineups being prepared for Sunday.

Until then, Nagbe’s continued absence from Atlanta’s preparations for RBNY should perhaps regarded as interesting rather than revelatory.