COMMERCE CITY — It didn’t look good when was carried from the field at halftime after sustaining an ankle injury in Sunday’s victory over Los Angeles that propelled the Rapids to the Western Conference finals, but now there’s hope he will be back when the playoffs resume with a two-game series against Seattle.
A subsequent MRI showed Gashi’s injury was just a bad sprain. The playoffs do not resume until Nov. 22, because this week falls within a FIFA international calendar window. The in Columbus, Ohio.
Shortly before Gashi left the game Sunday he scored the goal that saved the Rapids’ season, . That gave Colorado a 1-0 victory that matched the Galaxy’s 1-0 win in LA. The in a penalty kick shootout.
“He’s been in (for treatment) the last couple of days, making great progress,” coach said Thursday after giving the team the past three days off. “We’ll see how he goes.”
Goalkeeper and midfielder are with the national team in Columbus. Having sustained a knee injury July 4 that kept him out until the last regular season game when he played the last 22 minutes, Jones is still working himself back to match fitness. He was a second-half substitute on the road in the first leg of the series with LA, then played 82 minutes in the clincher on Sunday.
Jones was slow to get up several times after falls on Sunday, but that was due to fitness issues, not a flare up of his knee injury. Mastroeni told Jones to pace himself to maximize his minutes because he’s like another coach on the field.
“Playing 45 minutes at sea level and then playing 45 minutes at altitude is a big difference,” Mastroeni said. “Then playing 82 minutes at altitude is an even greater difference. The way he managed himself I thought was spectacular. I knew I was going to have to pull him out at some point, but the way he conducted himself and the way he and Sam (Cronin) controlled the midfield gave everyone confidence as the game went on.”
