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Chicago Fire superstar Bastian Schweinsteiger left the team’s match against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday after picking up an injury in the 43rd minute.
The 32-year-old has certainly been put to work since arriving in Chicago, starting all 14 of the Fire’s matches—going the distance in 11 of them. He most notably played all 120 minutes of the Fire’s Round of 16 U.S. Open Cup loss to FC Cincinnati.
In the 43rd minute of the Fire’s 4-0 victory on Saturday night, Schweinsteiger asked to be substituted and went straight down the tunnel. Post match, Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic reported that the club was still evaluating the World Cup winner.
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“Basti, we will still have to see how it goes, but we had to pull him out of the game because he felt a little bit of very sharp soreness,” Paunovic said. “We will see, we will evaluate in the next couple of days how he recovers and we expect him to be ready for Portland. But we will know more on Monday.”
For his part, Schweinsteiger seemed optimistic after the game.
Another great performance by our team. Fortunately my injury shouldn't be too bad and I am looking forward to our next matches. @ChicagoFire
— Basti Schweinsteiger (@BSchweinsteiger) July 2, 2017
Yesterday, the club announced the injury as right hip pain, and has the midfielder listed as “day-to-day.”
Question marks remain over whether Schweinsteiger will be fit for Wednesday’s match in Portland, but a quick turnaround, long flight and turf field don’t exactly add up to a short recovery.
At press time on Monday, the club had not released further updates on Basti’s condition. We’ll update this post if and when that happens.