Sporting KC
Tim Melia to Miss Three to Four Months
Sporting Kansas City receive more bad news with Tim Melia to miss most of the rest of the 2023 MLS regular season.
If you are a Sporting Kansas City fan, you know pain. The pain of watching your team struggle through the 2022 and 2023 MLS seasons and the pain of seeing your team constantly dealing with injuries.
Add another name to the injury report.
Tim Melia is now reported to be out for three to four months with an “avulsion of his hip flexor muscle.”
Out at #SportingKC training today. No Tim Melia. Vermes said he will be out for 3-4 months, erring on the longer side of that.
— Daniel Sperry (@sperrydaniel94) May 23, 2023
In news that was apparently mentioned on the Apple TV MLS Season Pass broadcast (but not on the FS1 telecast), it’s now been confirmed by the team at training. If the injury is four months, that’ll take us until the end of September and Melia will miss most of the regular season. According to Daniel Sperry in the KC Star, “the nature of how it heals has Vermes looking at the longer side of his estimated return.”
If it’s four months from today, that would leave just three regular season games left to be played. The return trip to St. Louis on September 30, another road game against Real Salt Lake on October 7 and a Decision Day home game against Minnesota United on October 21st.
It’s a brutal blow, particularly after finding out that Melia is the league’s 7th highest paid goalkeeper.
The only “positive” is that the injury doesn’t require surgery. This will mark the second straight season that Melia has missed a huge chunk of the year.
Who Replaces Melia?
Looking all around the Sporting KC roster, goalkeeper might be the deepest position.
LA Galaxy Homegrown John Pulskamp started the first five games of the 2023 season before finding the bench after a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders. He allowed only seven goals in that stretch, which was looking far better before the four against Seattle.
More recently, the club has started ‘third-string’ keeper Kendall McIntosh in back-to-back games. He earned a 1-1 draw against LAFC before the tough 4-0 outing against St. Louis.
I say it’s the deepest position because there is probably no other spot on the roster that’s three deep (though I suppose many probably don’t rate Pulskamp, McIntosh or both). The only other spot I’d contend is the dual #8 midfield spot that’s frequently occupied by Erik Thommy, Gadi Kinda, Remi Walter among others (Espinoza, Hernandez, etc.).
As for who starts, it seems to be McIntosh for the moment, but I think both could find time. If the team were to deal with another injury, they’d likely sign the MLS pool goalkeeper, which is how Melia came to KC to begin with. They had to do that very thing in 2020 when they signed Charlie Lyon.
Sporting KC have a full roster at the moment and could choose to put Melia on the season ending injury list, but that spot seems destined for Kortne Ford is anyone is going there. That decision would need to be made before the secondary transfer window opens in the summer.
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Old guy is susceptible to injury! News at 7. Timmy is our best keeper, but he’s also just needs to retire as he can’t stay on the pitch. So are either Puls or Mac the man? Mac is who he is at this point right? He’s shown talent but bounced clubs as its never been enough to make him a #1. Puls is only 22. He can still grow. I guess you have to start him and hope he turns into something. Unless you’re just treading water until you bring in a new starter and dump 2 or more of the others.
Concerning SEI lists, why Forde the lock on that? Do we get more money back for him due to games missed or something? It’s not just a salary difference between the two right? Thx.
I guess I say Ford because he’s definitely not coming back this season. But you are right, from a salary perspective, Melia would get you more money back ($250k the max, versus $170k for Ford off the top of my head).
I think PV will hold out hope until the last second that Tim is healthy and that KC will make a run.
I agree he will. But if either of Pulskamp or McIntosh are good enough to start every game for this SKC team on a run to the playoffs, they’ve earned the right to be new #1.
This. You gotta dance with the one that brought you. If Puls gets us into the playoffs, no way Melia should get a look no matter how rehabbed he is.
With where we are in the standings and things only looking worse because of shocker more soft tissue injuries piling up, I’m not sure why they haven’t gone ahead and put someone on the SEI that could give them some money and a spot to play with to either bring up some of the young’uns (Bryant in particular) or look for someone to bring in that may be a bad fit for a club that could have better luck here. I love Timmy, but he’s been arguably declining since last year (though he can still stand on his head for stretches) and considering how much of his play is based on athleticism I think this is a perfect time to finally move on from him as the no. 1. As far as the next man up, I’m solidly in the Pulskamp (forgive the pun). He’s big, strong in the air, and can get by with his feet. I’ve seen howlers from all three this year, and it seems John is catching the most heat for it from the coaching staff for whatever reason, but I think he’s got the most upside and there’s no reason to not see what we have going forward considering the (hopefully) high amount of roster turnover in the next year or two.