Photo: Denise McCooey
Bright Dike just cannot cut a break.
Having finally established himself as Portland Timbers’ main striker following the departure of Kris Boyd, he was looking forward to a season of regular starts in MLS.
Sadly, his dreams have been foiled by injury again in pre-season. He will miss six months following a successful surgery on his left knee to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) in addition to undergoing a successful lateral meniscectomy, a club release said.
He sustained the injury in the Timbers’ preseason match against Seattle Sounders FC on Feb. 5.
Dike, 26, was one of the Timbers’ leading scorers in 2012, recording five goals in 12 games over the final half of the campaign. Additionally, he managed five goals in five appearances with the Timbers Reserves last season.
Dike, who has family ties to Nigeria, recently earned his first two caps with the Nigeria National Team, scoring his first international goal in a friendly against the Catalonia National Team on Jan. 2 but was surprisingly omitted from the their squad for he African Cup of Nations finals tournament in South Africa.
Dike struggled to find minutes in 2012 having missed much of the Timbers inaugural year in MLS following a ruptured Achilles, also sustained in a Timbers preseason game on February 4, 2011.
His absence leaves the Timbers front line looking slightly devoid of physical power with current strikers listed being Sebastián Rincón, Jose Valencia, Danny Mwanga and Ryan Johnson. Brent Richards is also out for six months following surgery on his own left knee.
Yesterday midfielder Eric Alexander was traded for allocation money. That money may need to be spent sooner rather than later unless Caleb Porter has faith in an inexperienced set of forwards.
February 12, 2013 at 10:51 am
Surprised you don’t mention Jose Valencia. Surely he’s the one who’s most likely to be up top with Ryan Johnson, rather than Mwanga or Rincon, yes?
February 12, 2013 at 12:40 pm
An oversight, not deliberate. He has now been added. And I agree he looks now to be the likeliest of the starters. But I have a hunch there is more to come.
February 12, 2013 at 10:53 am
Gutted for a great guy like Bright. However, let’s not go overboard and say he was going to be in the starting XI. Porter made it clear, both with his comments, and his lineups, that Nagbe and Ryan Johnson are definitely our starting forwards, unless Trencito explodes later this year.
February 12, 2013 at 10:57 am
Default starting lineup:
Ricketts; Miller, Mosco, Horst, Harrington; Capt. Jack (when healthy), Chara, W. Johnson, Valeri; Nagbe, R. Johnson
Diamond 4-4-2
February 12, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Anybody else think Nagbe as forward risks wasting his talent?
February 13, 2013 at 12:27 am
Dike has always seemed a bit too fragile for the highly physical style he plays. And as others have said here and elsewhere, he clearly wasn’t to be a starting forward on a Caleb Porter squad. Always sad to see a player get hurt, but it should neither be a surprise nor take too big a bite out of Portland’s plans.
February 13, 2013 at 1:06 am
“We feel for Bright; he was going to be a key piece for us this year.” Caleb Porter said this in an article on the Timbers website. That sounds like he was considered a starter for 2013. I can’t see a sub considered a key piece. I hope Trencito, Danny, and Ryan can step up now. Seba Rincon has been looking good in practice as well, according to reports. We also have that forward from Belize trialing now.
February 14, 2013 at 10:01 am
I tend to agree with you. Just because he was not selected for the pre season is not a full indicator of placement in the pecking order. Porter may well have been using the games to look at various options. Also factor in that **** played for Nigeria in Catalonia recently, and may have been in less need of match practice (and more in need of rest).
So I think this is a set back and would not be surprised to see more Portland moves, even after yesterday.