Injury report: Updating status of Jordan Morris and more before Sounders’ conference finals

Since there hasn’t been much in the way of news between the Sounders’ conference semifinal win and the impending conference finals, it’s a good time to look at the various injuries that the Sounders have been dealing with as of late. Some players have been out for some time, some are fully back and training, and some are even able to play with their respective national teams. With a little less than a week to go, which players will be ready for the first leg of the Western Conference finals against the Colorado Rapids?

• Jordan Morris

If anything could ruin an award like Rookie of the Year, it’s getting hit with an injury in the middle of your team’s huge playoff run. Morris tweaked his hamstring in the second leg of the conference semifinals in Dallas, and the team’s medical staff has been hard at work to get him back into training for the conference finals. Morris participated in “half” of Wednesday’s training session, according to head coach Brian Schmetzer, the most that he has done since going off at halftime in the second leg of the conference semifinals in Dallas. With less than a week to go, it seems like a pretty big rush for an injury that can’t be taken lightly. My guess is that Morris won’t be ready to play in the first leg against Colorado, but if everything continues as planned, we could see him make the trip to Denver for the second leg.

• Roman Torres

While it seemed a bit more dire at the time, Torres really only missed the first leg of the conference semifinals against FC Dallas due to a hamstring injury. While he didn’t play in the second leg, he was on the bench in Dallas, signaling that he was probably fine to play but didn’t really have match fitness. He played a full 90 minutes on Tuesday for Panama, so he should be completely ready to go against Colorado.

• Brad Evans

The Sounders’ captain has had to deal with a number of injuries over the course of the season, and it’s been a couple of months since he played a full 90 minutes for the team. Despite making a few appearances late in matches in the last month, Evans still wasn’t healthy enough to start. He has participated in full training this week for the first time in months, though, so he may be ready to go. The thing is, it’s not even certain if Evans should start. Even if he’s healthy enough to do so, it depends on who Schmetzer has at his disposal. Torres has clearly displaced Evans in central defense, and Tyrone Mears’ form has improved enough to keep Evans out of that spot. Unless the injuries in attack persist, a fully healthy Evans could find himself still on the bench.

• Flaco Fernandez

Sometime in October, the Uruguayan midfielder had finally started to round into form since returning to the Sounders in July. Then the dreaded hamstring injury managed to strike him in the middle of a great run for Seattle, and he hasn’t been seen since. Fernandez is coming along well, according to Schmetzer, but I don’t think we’ll see him in either match against Colorado.

• Andreas Ivanschitz

The Austrian midfield maestro was yet another player who had found his form under Schmetzer in recent months, and his knee injury early in the knockout round against Sporting KC was a heartbreaker. But Ivanschitz finally made it into full training this week, too, and I think we’ll probably see him start or make the bench at CenturyLink next Tuesday.

Spenser Davis also covers the Sounders for Sounder at Heart.