Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Gardner Waived, Joseph to Injured Reserve

Sporting today announced that the club had waived defender, Josh Gardner along with placing Peterson Joseph on injured reserve. The two moves allow KC to free up two roster spots, leaving KC with one on budget spot (for players 1-20 on the roster) and one off budget spot (21-30).
The timing of the moves is interesting, and already I've seen people ask about potential signings coming in to take that one on budget spot.
The Gardner move is a little surprising, but not shocking. He's not gotten too many fans in KC from his performances in games like last year's US Open Cup loss to Orlando or against Cruz Azul in Mexico City when he was subbed out early with an injury. And with the recent emergence of Kevin Ellis and the signing of Toni Dovale, KC looks like they now have enough cover at the left back spot to make Gardner's spot expendable. He appeared in nine MLS games, three CCL games, and two Open Cup games, recording one assist in his KC career.
Joseph going onto the injured reserve was much less surprising; in fact most people have been expecting it for a while. The Haitian international hasn't practiced since collapsing in practice late in the 2013 season. Since then he's had a number of tests done but the cause has still not been found. The only surprise is that it took KC this long for it to be officially mentioned that he was going on IR.

UPDATE:

In quotes about the waiving of Gardner, Peter Vermes has said that the move was done in order to make room for an international defender that they hope to announce this week. Could that be a reference to Brazilian right back, Igor Julião, who the club was linked with earlier this month?

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