New Union star Mikael Uhre is expected to arrive in Philadelphia on Friday

Union manager Jim Curtin announced Thursday that new star striker Mikael Uhre finally has the green light to fly to Philadelphia, after a lengthy delay in getting his U.S. visa, and is expected to arrive in town from Denmark on Friday.

Don’t expect Uhre to play in Saturday’s season opener against Minnesota United (1 p.m., PHL17), though. There’s still a little more paperwork to process once he gets here, and more importantly, he hasn’t played in a game since Dec. 12.

Uhre has done his best to stay in shape, and the Union have shared videos with him of their playing style. He’s also had some chats with his future strike partner Julián Carranza. But he’ll need a little bit of time to adjust here before he gets rolling.

“Not sure how much sense it makes to force him off of a plane to play,” Curtin said. “So we’ll weigh all those variables. But the positive is, he will be here tomorrow in Philadelphia, and we can really start to get to work with him.”

» READ MORE: Julián Carranza has a chip on his shoulder as he settles in with the Union

Sergio Santos left town a few days ago to finish getting his green card. He might be back Friday, but Curtin isn’t assuming it.

“If he’s available, great; if not, we have a good stable of strikers that will have to step up,” Curtin said. “But we do have to prepare as if he might not be here.”

It hadn’t been clear that Santos could play Saturday regardless of the green card situation, because he picked up a few minor injuries during preseason camp. One of them kept him out of the final preseason scrimmage last Friday.

Curtin said Thursday that Santos is now “healthy, he’s fine physically,” and the Brazilian striker was in practice at the beginning of this week before flying to Chile to finish the green card paperwork. (All green card applicants must leave the United States to complete the final steps.)

Once Santos is back, the Union will gain another open international roster spot. They had three at the start of the day Thursday: one acquired in the Jamiro Monteiro trade, one freed up with Monteiro’s departure, and one gained when Cory Burke got a green card.

On Thursday afternoon, the Union traded one of those spots to the Houston Dynamo for $250,000 in allocation money, taking the total down to two. Santos’ green card will give the Union three international spots again.

They could be used for signings this summer, or they could be used as more trade bait. The roster compliance deadline is Friday evening, and other teams in need of deals might be in touch.

» READ MORE: Union manager Jim Curtin is under pressure this year, but he doesn’t mind

The Union’s local television broadcast schedule was confirmed on Thursday, including the team’s first game on NBC Sports Philadelphia since 2017.

PHL17 remains the Union’s main local TV outlet, carrying 27 of the team’s 34 games this year starting with Saturday’s opener. 6abc will air the March 19 game at New York City FC, a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference final, and NBC Sports Philadelphia will have the Aug. 17 game at FC Dallas.

Five games will be nationally televised: May 1 at Nashville (ESPN, ESPN Deportes), May 22 at Portland (FS1, Fox Deportes), June 26 vs. NYCFC (FS1, Fox Deportes), July 8 vs. D.C. United (ESPN, ESPN Deportes), and Sept. 17 at Atlanta United (UniMás).

The regular season finale, Oct. 9 vs. Toronto FC, is the one game left. It’s subject to a flex pickup by national TV because all games on the last day of the season are played at the same time.

Hall of Fame play-by-play voice JP Dellacamera and color analyst Danny Higginbotham return as the announcer team. Dave Leno (who backs up Dellacamera in the booth) and Marisa Pilla (who also works on CBS’s NWSL broadcasts) return as studio hosts, with analysis from former Union players Sébastien Le Toux and Sheanon Williams. Former 6abc sports anchor Jeff Skversky will also contribute.

Online streaming of local broadcasts for fans in the Philly area will once again be free of charge on the Union’s website. Out-of-market fans can watch through ESPN+, just as Union fans can watch all games leaguewide that aren’t on national TV through the subscription service.

This is likely to be the last year of free online streaming of Union games for local fans. Major League Soccer will start a new national rights deal next year, and in-market streaming rights will be part of that package. ESPN is the favorite to win those rights for ESPN+, which would make fans have to pay up, but would also simplify things because it wouldn’t matter where you watch from.

Many local fans already have ESPN+ anyway, for its exclusive Flyers fans, local college hoops (Temple, St. Joe’s, La Salle and Penn), and a wide range of international soccer including Germany’s Bundesliga, Spain’s La Liga, and England’s FA Cup.

» READ MORE: Kai Wagner is ‘happy’ to stay with the Union after another winter of wanting a move to Europe