HOUSTON – The Houston Dynamo record belies their injury situation. Before the last game, the Dynamo had six players on the injury report. While the injuries were not the reason Houston dropped its first home game in two years, the hope is that they will have those reinforcements come Saturday’s game versus the New England Revolution (Buy Tickets).
The name that jumped on last week’s injury list was Giles Barnes. The forward was hitting an exceptional run of form, including a first-half goal Wednesday night against D.C. United, before having to leave just over a half-hour into the game with a right hamstring injury.
After missing the Sporting Kansas City loss, Barnes trained for the first time in nearly a week before Tuesday’s reserve match against the Chicago Fire.
“[It’s] Feeling better, joined in with a little bit of light training today,” Barnes told MLSsoccer.com. “The theory behind is that it’s just a pull and not torn. It’s just a little niggle. I’ll come in tomorrow and hopefully do some more and then hopefully should be back in Thursday if everything goes well.”
Without Barnes the Dynamo went to a 4-3-3 against Sporting. If he is able to come back in the lineup he will again pair with Will Bruin in a partnership that is paying dividends.
Joining Barnes on the injured list was Warren Creavalle. The midfielder missed all three of last week’s games with a right hamstring injury.
“Warren’s in the same boat as Giles. He actually looked at playing today but we didn't want to just throw him into a game,” head coach Dominic Kinnear said. “We want him to get in some training sessions so he trained this morning too.”
While Creavalle and Barnes are on their way back, Omar Cummings’ battle back from a right knee injury took another detour. Two weeks ago, the forward had a second surgery on the knee and according to Kinnear he’s “out for another couple of weeks.”
“The surgery went really good and it’s not as swollen as the last time,” Cummings told MLSsoccer.com. “As soon as it gets a little stronger we’ll start doing a little more.
“It’s a lot of frustration,” Cummings continued. “I’m trying my best not to do too much but it's tough. Talking with Dom he’s like ‘just get healthy.’ It’s a reassurance thing. He obviously wants me out there because he brought me here to do good things and play but he’s like ‘if you’re not healthy it doesn’t help me, doesn’t help you and doesn’t help the team. First and foremost get healthy and we’ll go from there.’”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DarrellLovell.
