Sporting KC’s Khiry Shelton Out 2-3 Months

On Thursday, Sporting Kansas City announced that striker Khiry Shelton would be out two to three months. He suffered a MCL tear and a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee in last Saturday’s match-up with Toronto FC. He underwent surgery early on Thursday.

Earlier in the week Peter Vermes announced Shelton would be out more than a month and that the injury wasn’t season ending. If the injury last three months that will be mid-October. Sporting KC conclude the regular season on October 28th when Los Angeles FC come to town with former SKC players Benny Feilhaber and Latif Blessing.

If he can come back in the two month window, he may be able to get rehab starts with the Swope Park Rangers who end their season earlier on October 14th. He would only be eligible to play for SPR in the playoffs if he has five appearances with the club (if the rules are like last year, USL rules are notoriously hard to come by).

So far this season he has contributed two goals and two assists across 16 appearances (13 starts) and 1,157 minutes. His loss leaves Sporting KC precariously thin at center forward. Diego Rubio would likely become the defacto starter and Daniel Salloi has starts there in the past but he mostly lines up at the left wing spot. Kharlton Belmar subbed on for Shelton after his injury but he’s been limited to just 35 MLS minutes in 2018 (though he did start at CF in the US Open Cup).

The loss of Shelton just exacerbates the need for Sporting KC to be active in the MLS Secondary Transfer Window which opened this week on July 10th. It stays open until August 8th. When asked during this weeks media scrum Vermes indicated he had no new updates on upcoming moves.