LA Galaxy defender Jorge Villafaña has been placed on the Season-Ending Injury List.
The player suffered a knee injury in 2021, sending him to the sidelines at the end of last season. Head coach Greg Vanney hoped the player would recover by the 2022 campaign, speaking on the situation in mid-March after Villafaña underwent a procedure to improve his condition.
“He had a scope, a surgery on his knee on Monday,” Vanney told reporters at training in March.
“So they did a little cartilage snip, for lack of professional words. So he’ll be probably roughly six to eight weeks, eight weeks, and we’ll see. Hopefully that will be the solution for what’s been bothering him. He had a bone bruise last year that was pretty significant. He tried to come back and he still was feeling the issues. We’ve been looking at it, hoping that the bruise would heal and then at this point, was a little bit of getting in and just really seeing what’s going on. And so they found a couple things that they needed to manage and hopefully this will be the solution for him.”
But it seemed the injury he sustained could not be treated with the procedure, keeping him out for the remainder of the year.
The player joined LA Galaxy in 2021, after time with Chivas USA and the Portland Timbers. He made 21 appearances for the Western Conference giants before sitting out the rest. Overall, he’s managed 10 goals and 24 assists across 13 seasons in Major League Soccer.
Per league rules, “if a player suffers a season-ending injury, a club may place that injured player on the Season-Ending Injury List and receive roster relief (i.e., an open roster slot). Once placed on the Season-Ending Injury List, the injured player will not be eligible to play for the club in any remaining competition during that MLS season (including any exhibition games or tournaments, including but not limited to: Leagues Cup, Campeones Cup, Concacaf Champions League, Canadian Championship and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup).”
