Union’s Leon Flach could miss the rest of the regular season with a hernia injury

Union midfielder Leon Flach could miss the rest of the regular season because of a flare-up of the hernia injury he’s been battling through all year.

“He’s had a lot of injections during the season, has played through it with a lot of pain,” manager Jim Curtin said in a news conference Friday. “The pain got to the point in that [Toronto] game where it was just unbearable for him. He’s had scans here in the U.S., he’s going to get a second opinion in Germany, but the likelihood is that it will need surgery to repair.”

Flach suffered the injury flare-up during Wednesday’s 3-1 loss at Toronto FC. He sat down on the field without any apparent cause, pointed repeatedly toward his groin, and had to leave the game in the 33rd minute.

The 22-year-old has traveled to Germany because it’s where his family roots are. He was born in Texas while his father worked in Houston, but he moved to Hamburg as a young child.

“The damage has gotten to the point where it needs surgery — and time, to be quite frank,” Curtin said. “The quicker we can get that diagnosis and the surgery finalized, the hope will be to have him back by the playoffs.”

That sets a target of late October to early November.

» READ MORE: Union lose badly at last-place Toronto FC, 3-1

The first game Flach will miss is one that’s usually a festive occasion: Sunday’s visit from the rival New York Red Bulls (7:55 p.m., FS1 and Fox Deportes).

It will be the teams’ first meeting since Curtin fired a bulletin board shot up the New Jersey Turnpike last month, calling the Red Bulls “the little brother” after the Union’s win in the Leagues Cup round of 16 extended their unbeaten streak in the all-time series to 11 games.

“I think for a team and a group to be in 21st place [in the Supporters’ Shield standings at the time] — to talk and run their mouths as much as they do on the field … is something,” Curtin said at the time. “Yeah, I’m giving bulletin board material, but I’ve kind of had enough of it.”

New York has fallen two places in the Supporters’ Shield standings since then, to 23rd; and sits in 12th in the Eastern Conference (7-11-8, 29 points), three points out of the last playoff spot.

It’s also a Union game on traditional TV. So if you’re at the Shore for Labor Day weekend instead of at home with an Apple device, you can watch easily. And if you do watch on Apple, it’ll be free of charge. (If you see Fox and MLS listing the kickoff time at 7:30, don’t fall for it. That’s just when the broadcast starts.)

But this time, things are likely to be far from festive. With José Andrés Martínez and Jesús Bueno suspended and Flach injured, Curtin will be without all three of his team’s defensive midfielders for a game in which both teams will press the life out of each other.

» READ MORE: The Union's bad loss at Toronto could have a long-lasting impact

What Curtin does about this is the biggest question of the weekend. The most obvious answer on paper would be to play a 3-5-2, which would put enough defensive reinforcement behind a central midfield trio of Alejandro Bedoya, Jack McGlynn, and Dániel Gazdag.

If Curtin wants to stay with a 4-4-2, he’d probably have to push Jack Elliott up from centerback to defensive midfield. (Which would be close enough to a 3-5-2 anyway.)

“We have, obviously, a good group of centerbacks,” Curtin said. “We have one centerback that can step in and play as No. 6 [defensive midfielder]. Between Bedoya and McGlynn, they’re experienced enough that they can handle being central. … I’m not going to reveal exactly how we’re going to do it — a little shorthanded, but we certainly have the guys that can cover in there.”

Though the Union play six of their remaining nine regular-season games at home, all but two are against teams currently in playoff positions: this one and Sept. 20 at Charlotte FC.

So does that make Sunday a must-win, even with a shorthanded squad? It was worth asking.

“There’s no must-win at this point until you’re in a situation where you can be eliminated and not make the playoffs,” Curtin said. “But also, I understand your point — there has to be urgency. … We know we have a lot of home games, and we have to take advantage of them when we have them.”