Thierry Henry is hurting right now.
The New York Red Bulls' 37-year-old captain missed the team's regular season finale on Sunday with inflammation in both of his Achilles tendons, a cautionary move by the club ahead of their Eastern Conference Knockout Round game on Thursday against Kansas City. Henry has had a history with Achilles issues and played through them in the past, and head coach Mike Petke said Monday that he didn't want the injuries to become more serious as the postseason begins.
Henry was clearly in pain following the team's match against the Columbus Crew on Oct. 19, forcing Petke to play it conversative in the finale.
“I think his Achilles has always been acting up, but I think it really came to a point after the Columbus game,” Petke said via a conference call. “You could see in the Columbus game that there were a number of players that were just a little bit off. … He was one of those guys and I think he started really feeling both of them after.”
“The reason why we left him home is really because if it was just one of them like it’s been in the past, we’d have him come and get some treatment. But the fact that both were flaring up, it was not a difficult decision. We [had] already made the playoffs.”
The Red Bulls staff had discussions with Henry at the start of last week to see how he was feeling, but it became apparent by midweek that he would not be able to play against Kansas City.
Henry was then allowed to stay behind in the New York area, where Petke says he continued to recover over the weekend in the hopes that he could be ready for Thursday’s game at Red Bull Arena.
“He’s had some work done on his Achilles over the last couple days,” Petke said. "From what I’ve been led to understand is that the procedures and the treatment for something like this is a bit painful and is not fun, but it usually has a good result after a couple of days.
“[Monday] is a big day for Thierry to work and then as far as the next two days, I’ll start talking to the medical staff. I’ll know from them what the right course would be with him is [for this week’s training].”
If Henry cannot go full speed in practice, he likely will not miss much. Petke said the plan for the next few days is to recover from Sunday’s physically taxing duel and prepare mentally for Thursday’s win-or-go-home rematch (8 pm ET, ESPN2/ESPN Deportes in US, TSN1 in Canada).
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Still, it is unclear as of now as to whether Henry will be healthy enough occupy his usual starting place in the lineup.
“I spoke to the medical staff last night, I spoke to Thierry last night,” Petke said. “Today he’s going to get a good physical workout in. I believe he’s going to be doing that while we’re on the flight [back from Kansas City], but then we’re going to see exactly where he is.“
Franco Panizo covers the New York Red Bulls for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached by email at Franco8813@gmail.com.
