Besler out and injury woes continue for Sporting Kansas City

The injury woes continue for Sporting Kansas City. It was reported shortly after the U.S. draw with Honduras that Sporting KC's Captain Matt Besler was possibly injured and then verified the next day.

Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes confirmed today after practice that Besler is injured and out for Saturday's match in Philadelphia. "There is no sense trying to force it for this next game and we will make the assessment as we go into the week whether he will play in the Champion's League game or not," Vermes said.

Besler's injury was described as a "right leg contusion that is more around the hamstring but it is a contusion and not a pull."

Aurelien Collin has missed several games and is back to practicing but Vermes said they are going to wait until after tomorrows practice to make a decision.  "We will take him with us but I am just not sure he is ready yet," Vermes elaborated.

A new issue that just occurred in practice Thursday was an injury to Andy Gruenebaum. Vermes would not elaborate on it but said they would be checking it out and that is was likely Eric Kronberg would be starting.

A long list of challenges...

This season has been a never ending series of challenges for Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes. Players have been unavailable for:

• World Cup and national team duty (Matt Besler, Graham Zusi, Lawrence Olum, Jorge Claros, Erik Palmer-Brown)
• SKC's best defensive mid sold to Portugal (Uri Rosell)
• Season ending injuries (Ike Opara, Chance Myers and Erik Palmer-Brown)
• Career ending condition carried over from last season (Peterson Joseph)
• Numerous game missing injuries (Paulo Nagamura, Aurelien Collin, Jacob Peterson, Eric Kronberg, Andy Gruenebaum, Sal Zizzo )
• Even a player suspended for inappropriate comments (Jorge Claros).

"It's been a big challenge," Vermes  agreed. "And it doesn't seem to be getting easier either but what can you do? There's really not much you can do though, you can't waste your time worrying about it. You just have to get the guys ready. We've played a lot of games with a lot of different guys and we will have to keep doing it."