LA Galaxy boss Vanney not happy with Chicharito sharing injury news

Los Angeles Galaxy striker Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez revealed in a Twitch stream that he will miss the next two to five weeks due to a hamstring injury. The injury has been bothering him throughout the preseason and caused him to miss the final two friendlies. He was then ruled out of their season opener against LAFC, which ended up being postponed anyway due to heavy rainfall in Los Angeles.

Greg Vanney not too pleased with Chicharito

LA Galaxy coach Greg Vanney did not hide his displeasure with Chicharito for discussing the injury via Twitch. Vanney said that the club was planning to release the information before Chicharito took it upon himself.

“It matters. For us, things like that are internal and for club release,” said Vanney ahead of the Galaxy’s new season opener against FC Dallas on Saturday. “That’s been shared [with Chicharito]. I think at the end of the day, players sometimes get out in front of it and they want their fans and people to know how they’re doing.”

“Ultimately there’s a time and a place to give that information. It’s also about the opposition, game management, game prep, all those kinds of things. There’s a lot of things,” Vanney continued. “It’s not earth-shattering but in different situations this could be really important information that you give to the opposition, and you don’t want to do that all the time, that’s for sure.”

Vanney said Chicharito initially started to feel symptoms on February 12, when he was taken off the field during a preseason game just three minutes in. Chicharito has finished as the top goalscorer for LA Galaxy for the past two seasons, with 35 goals plus five assists in 53 games. With the Mexican superstar out, they will rely on Dejan Joveljić at striker.

The LA boss downplayed the fears that Chicharito will be out for five weeks, though. He said that he would be reevaluated in 10 days or so, and could possibly return before the end of the month.

“I don’t know exactly... 2-5 weeks is a long range. Our anticipation with the grade 1 hamstring strain is 10 days to a couple of weeks,” said Vanney. “Then we’ll see with return to play how long it takes him to get back into maximum fitness and do all the things he needs to do for a match performance. I don’t know if that’s two weeks or four weeks, right now he’s still in the treatment phase.”

The Galaxy will start the season this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. when they face FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium.