HARRISON, N.J. – The injury Bobby Convey picked up during Wednesday’s training session has made him the latest New York Red Bulls player to be ruled out for the team's rivalry match with D.C. United.
Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke told reporters at Red Bull Arena on Friday that Convey will miss Saturday’s road trip to RFK Stadium because of the hamstring injury the midfielder sustained in practice earlier this week. Convey was not out on the field or on the sideline Friday morning while the winless Red Bulls wrapped up their preparations for the first Atlantic Cup meeting of the season (7 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
“We’re not sure of the severity of it right now, but it’s enough that he wasn’t able to train today,” said Petke. “It doesn’t look like Bobby will be available this weekend.”
Convey will join teammates Tim Cahill and Armando in the stands this weekend. Cahill and Armando did some ball work together off to the side on Friday before running a few laps around the field with a trainer.
One player who has made substantial progress and is cleared to play in the nation’s capital is Roy Miller. The Costa Rican left back suffered Achilles’ inflammation and was taken off at halftime of New York’s 2-2 draw against the Montreal Impact last weekend, but he made steady progress throughout the week and took part in the full session on Friday.
Miller injured the same Achilles last August and missed the remainder of the 2013 season because of it.
“He’s good. Roy feels good,” said Petke. “He did the right thing in relaying the information in the game and us taking him out when we did, because he didn’t injure it, he just aggravated it a little bit. If we would’ve kept him in on that turf [at Olympic Stadium], who knows? It could’ve been bad.”
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The Red Bulls will also have Thierry Henry and Jamison Olave back in the mix after they sat out the game in Montreal because of the turf surface at the Olympic Stadium. Henry noted after Friday’s session that the even with injuries and other factors constantly forcing lineup changes in the opening weeks of the season, New York have to make due.
“That’s the way the game is,” he said. “We have a lot of injuries at the moment, for some season, [and] not getting the results we want to get, but some teams have to go through that during the season and hopefully things are going to get better.
“In this type of situation, you don’t really want to think about injuries and that you still didn’t win although we know we still didn’t win. Trying to get a win over there will be difficult, but we have to do it.”
Franco Panizo covers the New York Red Bulls for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached by e-mail at Franco8813@gmail.com.
