New York City Interim Head Coach Nick Cushing has confirmed Defender Anton Tinnerholm will miss Sunday’s trip to New England Revolution.
The Swede was forced off in the midweek visit of D.C. United with a hamstring injury, having not long returned from Achilles and ankle knocks.
Cushing admitted the setback is likely to be due to the amount of minutes the 31-year-old has played since his comeback, given the squad’s frustrating injury situation, but confirmed it will not be a long-term lay-off.
“He won’t be ready for this one,” he explained. “He’s picked up a slight little niggle, although it’s not really serious.
“I think it’s a byproduct of losing a lot of guys and having to roll with a small roster. He’s probably played a little bit too much football – after having such a long time out – and he’s picked up a little niggle.
“He’s will the medical team now. He won’t be ready for this one.
“Everybody else has trained and we’re going to be smart with our selection, having two days between this game and Cincinnati, and then from Cincinnati to Charlotte.
“We’ll have to pick a team that is prepared for this game but also we have to have one eye on those games coming up.”
Cushing handed a debut to new recruit Matías Pellegrini on Wednesday night, introducing the Argentine for the final 15 minutes of the game.
The Head Coach says he has been impressed with the Midfielder's energy and enthusiasm, and revealed he could make his first start for the Club at Gillette Stadium.
Cushing also shared an update on Keaton Parks, Alex Callens and Thiago Martins, adding the trio are also closing in on returns.
“It’s not crazy to think he could start the game this weekend,” he continued. “When I went to look at New England, Cincinnati, Charlotte, he will definitely play a lot of minutes across that week purely because of the number of guys we have and the quality he has.
“I’ve previously communicated that we haven’t brought a guy here that has been consistently playing at our level week in, week out and is ready.
“He’s not that far away but I knew he would give us some energy. He’s hugely motivated to get his career back to where it should be.
“I thought it was a difficult game for him to go into [on Wednesday] after only being here for a short period of time.
“He’s a really good guy, a great guy with really good energy, who has slotted right into the group and built relationships, and has cohesion with people on and off the training pitch.
“The guys are working hard. We have Alex Callens, Thiago Martins, and Keaton Parks all on the training pitch and close. It’s day-to-day at the moment with where we are with injuries.
“Today was a positive day but it wasn’t a day that I can confirm they are going to play. Tomorrow will be another important day to see whether we can get these guys in for New England, but then we have a two-day turnaround and then another, so we have to consider all the squad at this moment.
“When we have those guys returning and it’s a real crucial part of the season, we have to take each day as it comes.”
Sunday’s game will see two teams go head-to-head who are each looking to halt frustrating runs of form.
While Cushing and the squad have had little time to prepare since the midweek game against D.C. United, he insists the team are doing all they can to come away from New England with a positive result.
“I think for us, it’s about trying to improve on the performance in the areas we feel we can be better,” he said.
“With line-up changes and inconsistency in the XI, it’s going to give us inconsistency in trying to affect the game and perform in the way we want to – but we have to keep working.
“We have to keep looking at the performance in the areas: the goal, the second goal, the set-play, the second goal for Orlando’s set-play… We have to look at these moments and have more concentration, we have to focus better in those moments because especially in the D.C. game, we didn’t so much.
“We don’t have enough as well in our offensive play but we have had those moments this season – maybe with different guys, but we have to keep striving and keep aiming to get the performance more consistent over 90 minutes.
“This moment is a real test of your resilience and your character as a squad. Of course, the level of quality hasn’t been there in the performances to win the games but the togetherness, and the desire, and the hunger to really push the games to a point where we feel we should have got some different games [has].
“We don’t feel like we’ve been well beaten in any of the games. We’ve made individual errors and maybe haven’t gotten the level offensively to a place where we’ve got two, three goals clear.
“Although we’ve created some moments, I’ve been really pleased by the way the guys who haven’t had as much football have gone in. Gideon Zelalem goes in and gives us life and affects our offensive play… Even though he hasn’t played as much football, he’s kept himself prepared and the others have had a good impact on the game.
“There are many positives but we’re realistic as well that this is a hugely disappointing run.
“For us, it’s about training the way that we've trained because we know it's worked us into a moment where we can create chances, but it's also about trying to build that cohesion and trying to work.
“Even when we don't have so much time and so much training time, it’s about looking at the video and looking at areas where we can improve so that we can we could start to create more chances because creating chances gives us a chance of winning football games.”
