Tata Martino gives update on Diego Gómez’s injury

Following Saturday’s 3-1 victory against Nashville SC at Chase Stadium, for Inter Miami coach Gerardo Martino reflected on the game and yet another injury to a key player. Paraguayan midfielder Diego Gómez limped out of the game on 40 minutes after suffering a sprain to his right ankle.

In his post-match press conference, the Argentine coach gave an update on the 21-year-old South American: “He is going to the clinic to get an X-Ray. We saw it clearly, it is an ankle sprain. Now we have to determine whether it’s just a standard sprain or something more serious and affecting the bone. He said his ankle was quite sore, it was swollen, but we can’t make any assumptions,” the coach told reporters.

“I thought he had injured himself while crossing the ball. We just have to wait. We have had similar issues - it happened to us with Fede Redondo, with Benja (Cremaschi) and now this with Diego. Let’s hope it’s nothing important,” Martino added regarding the ongoing injury crisis in Fort Lauderdale.

Inter Miami’s casualty room filling up

During the preseason they suffered the loss of Facundo Farías due to a knee injury, Benjamin Cremaschi is still not close to returning, Federico Redondo will also be absent for a while, Jordi Alba is ruled out for New England Revolution’s visit next weekend and now this setback with Diego Gómez - just when he was forming a strong partnership with Messi and Suárez in attack.

Tata’s message to MLS

Following on from what he said after the defeat to Rayados, Martino declared: “Due to different circumstances we have seven or eight players out. In a league like the MLS that is so strict with the issue of the roster, the budget and, above all, being able to freely count on academy players, we had to make a big move to be able to count on Yannick (Bright) and Leo Afonso.

“That wasn’t easy because we had to include them in the first team roster and that means we have less money to make another signing. That’s not a facility that the league grants you and we have to go out and replace important players with two guys that we chose sixty days ago in the draft,” he complained.

To end, Martino took a positive view of the moment his team is in with three more points to the cause: “This is what is happening to us, but if all this happens to us and we collect 18 points, it does not matter if we are first or second. 18 points is much more than what we could have had last year at this point, we will be achieving the objective of accumulating points now so that the second part of the year is not so demanding or so dramatic”.

Inter Miami top the Eastern Conference standings on 18 points - two points clear of their nearest rivals, the New York Red Bulls who have a game in hand. Martino’s team are next in action on Saturday when they visit bottom-of-the-table New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.