Union centerback Jakob Glesnes will have sports hernia surgery, likely ending his season

"He’s played through about as much pain as you possibly can," manager Jim Curtin said of last year's MLS Defender of the Year.

Jakob Glesnes has battled the pain of a sports hernia for months.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Oct. 28, 2023, 8:48 p.m. ET

Stalwart Union centerback Jakob Glesnes has yielded to the pain of the sports hernia that’s been bothering him for months and will have surgery on Tuesday.

Manager Jim Curtin made the announcement after Saturday’s playoff-opening 3-1 win over New England at Subaru Park, in which Glesnes was a scratch.

Curtin had said Friday in his game day-eve news conference that Glesnes was “day-to-day, that’s how it’s been for the better part of two-plus months. … It becomes an issue of pain tolerance, what makes sense, what doesn’t lead to even further damage.”

Between then and Saturday night, it became too much to bear. Glesnes was briefly spotted in the Union’s locker room after the game in street clothes, but that was the only sight of him.

“He’s played through one of the more painful injuries you can have in this in this sport,” Curtin said. “Just because [of] the kicking, everything that goes along with [it], the jumping, the change of direction, playing a centerback position where you have to hit long diagonals [passing]. He’s played through about as much pain as you possibly can.”

Curtin declined to put a timeline on how long Glesnes is out. The minimum recovery time usually is six weeks, which is how far away the MLS Cup final is on Dec. 9.

“You can tell when a player comes in and we have that kind of final talk where surgery is probably the smartest thing to do at this stage,” Curtin said. “He gives everything for the badge, left everything he could on the field this year. But unfortunately, the pain has gotten to a point where it’s not tolerable — and there’s no one tougher than Jakob, too.”

It was more wishful thinking than a medical diagnosis.

“He’s not coming back in a week or two,” Curtin added. “I’ll never rule him out, but it’s going to take a couple of weeks to heal from that.”

Last year’s MLS Defender of the Year, Glesnes played in 43 of the Union’s 48 games so far this year. This same injury sidelined the 29-year-old Norwegian for three games in late September and early October, but he was able to return for the last three contests of the regular season.

“Obviously Jakob’s a huge miss for us,” said Jack Elliott, Glesnes’ longtime starting centerback partner. “We know each other very well by now. But I think we all can pick up the slack. … When everyone plays their role, we’re always going to be OK, and I think that’s just what we have to do.”

Damian Lowe will start in Glesnes’ place, as he did Saturday, next to Elliott. If either of them goes down, there could be a problem, because there are no other centerbacks on the Union’s roster.

Academy product Brandan Craig was loaned to Austin FC in July, and while Austin didn’t make the playoffs, the terms of the deal bar the Morrell Park native from returning to the Union’s roster before the end of the year.

The emergency choice probably is right back Nathan Harriel, who has some experience playing centerback.

“Jakob’s a great leader. He’s very present on the field — an extra blanket of security back there,” Harriel said. “But Damian steps in and is very willing in all the opportunities that he gets to play. So it’s just a lot of next-man-up mentalities.”

Game 2 of the series, on New England’s turf at Gillette Stadium, isn’t until Nov. 8 (7 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes, Apple TV). A week and a half is a long time to wait for the next game, but it will be far longer before we see Glesnes on a playing field again.