MONTREAL -- The Chicago Fire can thank Bastian Schweinsteiger for bringing their four-game losing streak to an end. Now they're hoping the price he paid to make that happen won't lead to him missing any time.
At Stade Saputo on Saturday, Schweinsteiger scored his first goal in 20 games, before tightness in his right quadriceps muscle forced him to leave in the 79th minute of Chicago's 1-0 win over the Montreal Impact.
Prior to that, Schweinsteiger battled through the match to score 59 minutes in, after he was fouled and injured by debuting defender Deian Boldor, who was sent off in the 50th minute. Head official Baldomero Toledo used Video Review to deem the Romanian's challenge on Schweinsteiger worthy of a red card.
"The kick with the red card, you could see the calf, the inside of the calf," Schweinsteiger said. "Like I will see how it goes this week, but at the end I had to leave the pitch because of my quad. That was one situation where the quad was tight. I will see what's going to happen."
Boos from the partisan crowd of 19,619 rained down on Schweinsteiger when he returned to the pitch after he received treatment following the tackle. Favoring his right leg after the game, Schweinsteiger had an ice pack on his right calf before having his lower leg taped.
"I think if the spectators also saw the replay they would see it differently, but no one sees if it was a foul or how the tackle was," Schweinsteiger said. "For me it doesn't matter if the crowd is saying something, I just tried to continue my game and to help the team, and it was important that we scored then, and it helped us a lot."
Fire coach Veljko Paunovic could not say whether Schweinsteiger will be ready to face the New York Red Bullson Sat., Sept. 9, when the Fire host them at Toyota Park (4 pm ET, UniMás and Facebook in US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
"Well we have to examine, we have to do diagnostics," Paunovic said. "We'll see [Sunday] when we come back to Chicago. I hope he can be ready for the next game. I know that he will do everything to be ready so we will work together to prepare him for the next match."
Pressed to offer his opinion, Paunovic was cautiously optimistic that Schweinsteiger will not miss any time.
"He's a tough guy," Paunovic said. "I can see by his expression in his face, look in his eyes, he's going to do everything to recover and he's going to be fine."
"It's going to hurt if he can't play, but we'll have to see how he feels," added Fire goalkeeper Matt Lampson. "He's a warrior, he's going to play if he can. But if he thinks it's going to hurt the team, he'll probably do the right thing and let it rest. It was a really bad challenge, I mean, I'm looking at it right now and it's not pretty. So hopefully he recovers well, and we could use him on the field next Saturday."
