Chicago Fire midfielder Stanislav Ivanov expected to miss four months with knee injury

It has not been a dream start for Stanislav Ivanov with the Chicago Fire.

The Bulgarian winger, who was expected to play a big part in the team’s attack after signing in the off season, suffered a medial meniscus tear in his left knee at training camp in Orlando. He underwent successful surgery in Chicago, and is expected to miss four months.

it’s a similar injury to the one Jeremiah Gutjahr faced last season with the Fire, and isn’t as serious as the Luka Stojanovic or Kenneth Kronholm injuries.

Impact on international slots

There is a silver lining here, though. The Fire will place Ivanov on the Injured Reserve List. That requires Ivanov to miss a minimum of six games, but it also means he no longer occupies an international slot on the roster. That puts the Fire right at the limit of eight internationals.

As we reported previously, the Fire had a green card appointment scheduled for another player this month, but that would have required that player to travel back to his home country in Europe for an appointment at the embassy, missing training camp and the start of the season because of the travel and the quarantine. Now, that player will instead travel back to Europe during the FIFA International window in June to finish the green card process, potentially missing less time with the Fire. We’ll know more once the MLS schedule is released, which should be coming very soon.