Red Bulls forward Mike Magee has a right to feel shortchanged. Had his injured knee been diagnosed earlier, he’d be playing right now, instead of hoping for a mid-summer return at the earliest. Magee had to wait until Feb. 5 to have the MCL operation he says he should have had in August. “July can’t come soon enough,” the 22-year-old Magee told Big Apple Soccer.
No kidding. The Red Bulls, as the whole soccer world knows, has a striker problem. Even with the late addition of Clint Mathis to its roster, the Bulls still only have three healthy strikers with any MLS experience; MLS journeyman John Wolyniec and 17-year-old Jozy Altidore are the other two. NYRB technical director Jeff Agoos is working around the clock to fill the gap before Saturday’s deadline; the latest rumors claim that 36-year-old Brazilian striker Edmundo could be making his way to the Big Apple.
Nevertheless, Rick Guter, the Bulls’ head athletic trainer, believes Magee will return some time in July, but there’s no question the striker is unhappy the injury wasn’t caught sooner by last year’s training staff. For months he received cortisone shots while continuing to play on a blown MCL. “I can honesty say that for the six months before the surgery my knee was … was uncomfortable,” he said. “The only thing I can take good now is that my knee is strong now. You can’t go back in the past. If I could, I would.”