Josef Martinez’s status for Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup against Chicago will be decided soon, according to manager Gerardo Martino.
Martinez, who leads MLS with 14 goals, suffered a broken nose while scoring during last week's 2-0 win at Columbus.
Martino said they weighing possibly using the Venezuelan on Wednesday in the fifth round of the tournament, which will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“Even though we don’t think it’s a serious injury, we are going to evaluate the risks.” Martino said.
Martino said midfielder Miguel Almiron, who suffered a shoulder injury at NYCFC, is fine and they are past the worrying stage. Almiron played in the game at Columbus, contributing an assist. He has six goals and seven assists this season.
Martino said that defender Chris McCann (hamstring) may be available for Sunday’s MLS game against Portland.
The team likely won’t call up any players from Atlanta United 2 for Wednesday’s game. Yosef Samuel was called up but not used for the fourth-round game against Charleston. Martino said the tournament rule limiting game-day rosters to five international players makes it difficult to considering using players such as Jon Gallagher, Oliver Shannon and Jose Hernandez, who participated in training camp with the senior team. Those players would count as internationals.
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