The Chicago Fire just got the worst possible news at the worst possible time.
Attacking midfielder Michael de Leeuw picked up an injury late in the first half of the Fire’s 1-1 draw against New York City FC on Saturday. It looked bad. Pauno acknowledged it looked bad. But there was still some faint hope that maybe MdL’s injury wasn’t actually as bad as it looked.
Those hopes have now been dashed. Imaging tests have confirmed that De Leeuw suffered a rupture in his left ACL. He’s scheduled to have surgery to repair the injury at Rush Presbyterian in the coming weeks and is facing a lengthy recovery period afterward.