Oct. 9
Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney said on Friday during a virtual press conference that Altidore had suffered a Grade 2 hamstring injury. "We're looking at roughly 4-5 weeks to get him on the mend and back," said Vanney.
With Altidore out for the balance of the regular season, Ayo Akinola should get plenty of opportunities to continue his torrid pace, as the striker has scored eight goals in just 767 minutes.
Oct. 3
Jozy Altidore exited Toronto FC's match against the Philadelphia Union in the 53rd minute after appearing to injure his left leg in Saturday night's match at Pratt & Whitney Stadium.
Altidore came out almost immediately after pulling up and reaching toward this hamstring, but the severity of the injury was not immediately known. If it does result in additional time lost, it would be the latest in a series of setbacks for TFC and US men's national team striker, who has made an average of 22 appearances per season since arriving in Ontario.
"It looks like a minor hamstring issue," Toronto manager Greg Vanney said. "He says that soreness is there. We’ll have to see. We won’t know what the time frame looks like until we get a scan and a sense of what it is."
Altidore had played a full 90 minutes only once this season, on March 7, and US manager Gregg Berhalter recently admitted the 30-year-old's durability has become an issue to monitor in terms of international play.
“What I would say is just looking at the striker position in general, I think you have Jozy Altidore who is probably still the most talented that we have in that position, but he’s got fitness issues,” Berhalter said on Extratime this week. “Let’s call it what it is. He’s not fit to play 90 minutes, he’s not fit to play at the level we need him to. But he’s still an amazingly talented player, so our goal there is to keep working with him, working with the club to get him up to where he needs to be and hopefully he can get there. But we’re not sure with that, we’re not sure.”
Altidore has two goals this season. Ayo Akinola leads the team with seven after he scored to level the match at 1-1 in the 58th minute. Alejandro Pozuelo later added a goal to give Toronto a 2-1 win.
