Columbus Crew midfielder Kevin Molino tears ACL, out for rest of 2021 season and some of 2022
Jacob Myers
The Crew's injury issues have gone from bad to worse, as has Kevin Molino's first season in Columbus.
After just 575 minutes in 11 games, the Crew announced Molino is done for the year after tearing his ACL in his right knee and will miss approximately nine to 12 months.
Molino walked off the field with a trainer on Tuesday during training after sustaining an injury. This is Molino's third ACL tear in his seven-year career in Major League Soccer.
Given the timetable for in ACL recovery, Molino will likely miss more than half of the 2022 season as well.
Molino, 31, and the Crew agreed to a multi-year contract before the 2021 season that made him the sixth-highest paid player on the team, making $667,000 this season, according to MLS Players' Association's salary database.
Signed as a free agent, Molino was coming off arguably his best season of his career with Minnesota United. He was the highest-scoring winger in MLS with nine goals and four assists in 1,264 minutes in 18 games (15 starts). He continued his prowess in the playoffs with four goals in three games, nearly putting Minnesota into MLS Cup.
But his first season with the Crew has been a tragedy.
He missed the first two months after undergoing a procedure to fix a lingering hamstring injury. Once he made his Crew debut on June 19 as a substitute, Molino didn't provide the spark the Crew envisioned in his 11 appearances when they signed him to be an immediate starter.
It looked like Molino might have been turning his season around when he scored a goal against D.C. United, but there were too many games when he wasn't the attacking threat the Crew needed.
Molino is the second Crew player to be ruled out for the rest of the season with an ACL tear. Midfielder Aidan Morris tore his ACL before the regular season began.
Midfielders Artur and Perry Kitchen have a timetable for their injuries when they could return for the end of the year, but it's unlikely they play meaningful minutes after missing so much time.
Without Molino, the Crew will now have to rely on Pedro Santos, Luis Diaz, Alex Matan and Derrick Etienne to provide offense from the winger position if the Crew are to come back in the final 13 games and make the playoffs.
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