CHESTER, Pa. - First came the loss on the field as the Union dropped their season opener against FC Dallas on Sunday.
Now comes an even bigger loss off of it as head coach Jim Curtin told reporters Wednesday captain Maurice Edu would be sidelined for at least three months with a stress fracture in his left leg.
Edu has yet to train with the team since preseason camp opened in January but initial expectations were that he wouldn't miss much time in the regular season.
Not anymore.
"It was a frustrating process, I think, for everybody involved in terms of finding a diagnosis," Curtin said in his weekly press conference Wednesday. "A lot of things didn't show up on MRIs on bone scans. We finally got to the bottom of it though and the X-ray revealed there was a fracture there."
Edu's injury problems began last season when he missed most of the last three months with a sports hernia before undergoing surgery in October. It was during his recovery from that when he developed a stress reaction, which was then revealed to be a stress fracture.
Edu, who mostly anchored the back line at center back over the last two seasons, was expected to move into a defensive midfield (No. 6) role and lead a revamped midfield that also features newcomers Ilsinho and Roland Alberg.
Without him available, Curtin called it a "big blow to a lot of the foundation and what we planned to do this year in terms of having him at the No. 6 role." Instead, the Union head coach started veteran Brian Carroll in the Union's 2-0 loss to FC Dallas on Sunday.
Carroll will likely remain in that spot when the Union return to action Saturday for another tough road game against reigning MLS Cup finalist Columbus (7:30 p.m., Live Well Network).
"We'll have to adjust to see what makes the most sense," Curtin said. "B.C. has been sharp all preseason. He was one of the few guys that I thought on the weekend had a positive performance, along with Andre [Blake]. He was breaking up plays and did a decent job for us. So we'll look at the tape and go week to week. But it does change the team."
A 14-year MLS veteran, Carroll is certainly comfortable as a defensive midfielder, as he is wearing the captain's armband while Edu and Tranquillo Barnetta (knee tendonitis) both deal with injuries.
But Carroll seemed to be disappointed - and taken a bit aback - when he first heard the extent of Edu's injury Wednesday.
"You never want one of your teammates to hear news like that," Carroll told reporters. "I know that he'll take his time and do things in the right way to be back on the field as fast as he can and in the best way possible."
In the meantime, Carroll will continue to try to lead the team and help the newcomers quickly integrate as the Union look to avoid falling deep in the hole to start the season, as they have the past two years.
"The only way we're going to improve and have a good season is if we all stick together on both sides of the ball, through good times and not good times," Carroll said. "It's having the confidence if things aren't going the way we planned to continue to play out of pressure and continue to play the style we worked on all preseason. We didn't necessarily succeed in sticking to that through the ups and down of [Sunday's] game. And that's what we need to learn as a group, no matter if you played 20 years in the league or if this is your first game. It's just about the group coming together on this journey and sticking together no matter what."
The Union are certainly used to dealing with a lot of adversity during Carroll's six-year tenure in Philly. But with so much being made of the franchise turning the page on its rough past and building a winning future, it almost seems like a cruel joke that their captain won't be able to be a part of it, at least early in the season.
And it's an extra twist of the knife that Barnetta, the three-time World Cup veteran that the team planned to build its attack around, also remains on the shelf.
"He'll be kind of a week-to-week situation," Curtin said. "At the same time, we have to be smart with his knee. He knows his body well and our doctors, our rehab people, do a great job. We'll assess it. I talk with Tranquillo every day and we'll see what's best for that situation."
Without those two in Columbus, Curtin seems poised to start a similar lineup to the one he fielded in Dallas with Ilsinho pulling the strings in the midfield in front of Vincent Nogueira and Carroll. But there's a chance he could go with a more offensive look that features Alberg getting the start and Nogueira sliding back into the No. 6 role, a formation Curtin tinkered with in the preseason.
"He's a big part of what we do, he's a big leader," Curtin said of Edu. "But at the same time, it'll be the next guys who have to step up. We've been without him for a long time in the preseason and guys have performed well, so we expect more of the same. We need to have a good mentality and stick together through a tough time. Injuries happen. They're part of the game. Columbus doesn't care one way or another."
