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You’ve been dying for some Sporting Kansas City news, but this wasn’t it. News broke today that Sporting KC Designated Player and midfielder Felipe Gutierrez will be out for seven to nine months following successful knee surgery. Nine months could have him missing the start of the 2021 season, assuming it starts when 2020 did.
#SKC MF Felipe Gutierrez has undergone surgery. Gutierrez missed last 4 preseason games & 2 reg-season games w/ what Vermes called a "bone bruise" on his knee.
— Aly Trost (@AlyTrost) June 9, 2020
Translation: "Here we go again! but with more faith than ever that we will rise again stronger than before!" pic.twitter.com/D4iOMGOm0V
Former Blue Testament writer Aly Trost captured Felipe’s Instagram post and later the team confirmed the news. Gutierrez missed both regular season games and the last five preseason games, as he last appeared against the Phoenix Rising trialists back on January 25th.
This solves the ‘problem’ of having too many starting quality midfielders (obviously a great problem to have). When the team heads to Orlando for the MLS return, they’ll be without Gutierrez leaving in tact the starting midfield trio of Roger Espinoza, Ilie Sanchez and Gadi Kinda.
This continues a trend of horrific knee injuries that’s plagued Sporting KC over the years. Many of which were originally thought to be minor in nature and then turned out to be much more severe and later required surgery.
In preseason, Peter Vermes told The Blue Testament that Gutierrez “has a bone bruise. He’s just trying to get over it. That’s really it.” Unfortunately it turned out to be much worse.
Gutierrez has a 2021 option year on his contract, so one would assume he’ll be back in 2021. He is the highest known paid player on the team, that is until the salary information for Alan Pulido is inevitably released. Gutierrez made just short of $1.7 million in 2019.
The Blue Testament will bring you more on this, and all other SKC related stories, as the return to play approaches.
Updated 3:30 PM CT: The following is a statement from the team.
“Sporting Kansas City midfielder Felipe Gutierrez underwent successful surgery this week to repair a cartilage defect in his knee and will be sidelined for seven to nine months, the club announced today. Gutierrez has been sidelined since preseason.
Gutierrez’s surgery was performed under the care of Sporting Kansas City’s chief medical officer Dr. Scott Luallin at Truman Medical Center - Lakewood Hospital in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.”