Horror injury to Mason Stajduhar raises questions about MLS guidelines

Orlando City fell to a 4-2 road defeat to New York City FC on Friday evening but the postgame thoughts were dominated by a serious injury to City goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar.

The 26-year-old was filling in for regular number one Pedro Gallese, who is currently away with Peru at Copa América. Stajduhar started well against NYCFC but suffered a major collision with Malachi Jones after 17 minutes, forcing the keeper to be stretchered from the field with a serious lower leg injury.

“The ball came in behind me, and then I see Mason run out,” explained Orlando defender Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. “I think he kicks the ball and the other guy comes, and I just hear a loud, basically like a click. He’s screaming and I didn’t know what it was. And then I look at his leg, and his leg was dangling, and I just looked away and basically just wanted to go, so I went to the stands, and just stood there with my eyes closed.”

Orlando boss criticises officials after Stajduhar injury

Stajduhar and Jones collided as the NYCFC winger raced onto a long through-ball over the top of the Orlando defence. He was entitled to challenge for the ball but the play should have been brought to a stop due to offside.

Jones was comfortably ahead of the deepest Orlando defender when he started his run but officials opted to allow the play to go on, as current guidelines recommend. Replays showed that Jones was a couple of yards offside and a prompter call from the assistant referee would have avoided the situation.

“They need to get better at this ruling of just allowing [the game to continue] when the offside is very obvious,” Orlando City head coach Oscar Pareja said after the game. “I think they need to flag the play. This is a very unnecessary play just to let it go, and we can avoid a lot of injuries. Today is a demonstration that we can do better.”