Toronto FC wonderkid Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to undergo procedure on his knee; will be out a while

A tough blow for Toronto FC wonderkid Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, who will undergo a knee procedure tomorrow. The club has not put a timeline on his return, and he is expected to be out a while, although TFC is optimistic that their budding star won’t be out ‘super long term.’

“He’ll have a procedure tomorrow that will tell us more,” revealed Bob Bradley on Thursday at BMO Training Ground. “We’re optimistic that it’s not a long-term issue, but it’s important that they get inside and take a look and fix anything that needs to be done.”

As Bradley mentioned, there will likely be a further update on Marshall-Rutty’s status following his procedure tomorrow.

“Unclear if it happened on one particular play,” added the TFC head coach. “When he came on as a reserve against D.C., he did a very good job, but in some point in the days after he started feeling something in there, so they’ll do a procedure [to] try to determine what’s causing the problem, and we’ll go from there.

It’s not exactly clear when the 17-year-old Canadian suffered the injury, though he was substituted off on March 12 against the Columbus Crew SC, leaving the match visibly distraught just 12 minutes in. However, the following week, Marshall-Rutty was back in full training and went on to play 25 minutes off the bench on March 19 against D.C. United.

“There was an initial scan that didn’t show anything, and he was able to get back into training, and then the discussion was would he be available for some minutes as a reserve?” said Bradley. “And then he said he felt alright, spoke to him even before we put him on in the second half. And now the second scan is different, so it’s hard to say exactly the timing [of the injury].”‍

READ MORE: Toronto FC, Marshall-Rutty catch a break; avoid serious injury‍

Valued by Toronto FC at $20 million according to his agent, it’s a tough break for Marshall-Rutty who was soon touted to make a move overseas to one of Europe’s top clubs and was on Canadian head coach John Herdman’s radar for Qatar 2022. He was the starting right-back for Toronto FC, but, especially at his age and with such a bright future ahead, both the player and the club must put his best interests first.

The question now becomes who will be the one to replace Marshall-Rutty at right-back for Toronto FC?

The obvious answer is Kaden Chung, but the former Pacific FC fullback left last match with a slight hamstring injury and is listed as questionable for Saturday’s match against New York City FC.

As such, look for recent homegrown signing Kosi Thompson to get minutes down the right flank for TFC on Saturday. The 19-year-old midfielder has been playing down the right flank in training and it’s something that Bradley says the team is comfortable with.

“It also is an opportunity possibly for Kosi Thompson, who has done great and has made a really good impression from the beginning of this year,” said the TFC head coach. “Young guys in moments like this do get opportunities.”

There’s also an outside chance that Canadian youth international Kobe Franklin, who recently signed an MLS Next Pro contract with TFC II, is called into the squad for Saturday’s match. He’s been training with the first team since the start of preseason. Last season, Franklin was a finalist for both the USL League One Young Player of the Year and Defender of the Year awards.

On the bright side, Jacob Shaffelburg was back in full training after missing the past two matches and is in consideration for Saturday’s match, while Ayo Akinola was also back in full training, though the club is erring on the side of caution with the 22-year-old striker.

Plus, the team expects that Jonathan Osorio and Chris Mavinga, who were both on international duty this week, will be able to play some sort of role on Saturday.

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