The pain no longer tolerable for him, coach Sigi Schmid had partial knee-replacement surgery Tuesday and was back on the job Friday at Sounders practice at Starfire complex in Tukwila. He wanted to wait until after the MLS season, but the discomfort made him opt for the club’s final bye week to do the medical deed.
“It just kept getting worse and worse, and it was just painful all the time,” Schmid told the News Tribune after practice, crutches at his side. “Even like (Thursday), coming home and watching games on TV, being able to sit there and watch TV and have your leg up and not have it throb is a nice change of pace. I just felt it was getting so bad that I didn’t want to wake up in a bad mood and take it out on my team, so I figured I’d better get surgery.
“The surgery went well, and the recovery has gone well so far.”
The Sounders had an hour-long scrimmage Friday and will practice Saturday, take Sunday off, then practice before returning to MLS play Wednesday at the Clink, when D.C. United visits CenturyLink Field.
“The questions are, ‘Am I going to crutch it, am I going to cane it, or are they going to cart me over?’ ” Schmid said. “So that’s the game-day decision.”
The Sounders figure to have back defender DeAndre Yedlin, who was to have arrived Friday following the U.S.’s elimination from the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. The U.S. lost all three matches by a combined score of 9-3. Yedlin injured a shoulder, but Schmid didn’t think it would keep him out of Wednesday’s game.