FRISCO — Jordan Morris had to be substituted out of the Seattle Sounders' playoff contest with FC Dallas on Sunday, making his U.S. national team status uncertain the day he was called up for World Cup qualification matches this month against Mexico and Costa Rica.
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The rookie forward was on coach Jurgen Klinsmann's list for Friday's game in Columbus, Ohio, and next week's trip to face Costa Rica. But Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer is concerned about the 22-year-old's status.
"It’s a hamstring strain, that’s all I can say because we’ve gotta get him evaluated," Schmetzer said after his team's 2-1 defeat that sent it through to the Western Conference final with a 4-2 aggregate win. "He wasn’t able to continue on examination at halftime by our trainers. We just felt that he couldn’t go, Jordan felt that he couldn’t go, so we had to scramble at the last minute and make a change."
While Schmetzer said he had little say in whether Morris will join up with the Americans in Ohio, he noted that Klinsmann won't want to bring in a player who might not be at 100 percent.
"That’s out of my control. What is obviously always most important is the health of the players," he said. "These games for the national team are really super important as well, so they wouldn’t want to take a player who might be injured and risk playing him in a game. The stakes are too high. It’s, again, really early and he will be fully evaluated by our staff, by the U.S. staff and we’ll go from there."
The Sounders moved into the Western Conference final against the Colorado Rapids, with the first leg in Seattle on Nov. 22.
