San Jose Earthquakes fans might have thought the club hit rock bottom after their midweek 3-1 defeat to Montreal Impact signaled the likely end of the club’s playoff hopes, but the soccer gods have revealed a tortuous new way to make the season yet more depressing: the news that Quincy Amarikwa will be sidelined for nine months after his knee surgery on Thursday afternoon.
The forward suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and lateral collateral ligament (LCL) following a collision with Sporting Kansas City Tim Melia goalkeeper early on in the Quakes’ 2-1 defeat last weekend.
It was immediately obvious that he had sustained damage to the knee, replays showing that it buckled in a graphic manner as he fell to the ground, but a timeline of nine months is even worse than speculated. At best, he is on course for a return from early to mid-summer.
Amarikwa has tallied nine goals and seven assists in forty appearances since joining Quakes from the Chicago Fire in June of 2015 and became the club’s fourth highest paid player after signing a multi-year deal last January. However, it now appears as if he will spend the majority of next season on the bench and the road to recovery will be a long and arduous.
Leg shaved and ready for surgery 😄 First step to getting back to ⚽️ #quakes74 #quincytime https://t.co/FHLWqiCoIR pic.twitter.com/oA7DtMPB3J
— Quincy Amarikwa (@QuincyAmarikwa) September 29, 2016