St. Louis City give worrying Roman Burki injury news before Sounders clash | OneFootball

St. Louis City entered Matchday 4 as the only team in MLS yet to concede a goal. But now they've lost one of the primary reasons for that for at least the next few weeks.

The club announced pregame that goalkeeper Roman Burki would miss Saturday's clash against the Seattle Sounders with a hand fracture. And maybe less encouraging, the club said Burki would be seeing a specialist to determine further details about the injury and his timeline for recovery.

The word "specialist" is never a thing you want to hear about a player's injury status, in part because it means there probably is some level of uncertainty over the prognosis. A google search reveals a 3- to 6-week timeline for healing of the bone, but it's less clear whether that mirrors how long it might take Burki to get game ready.

And Burki has been as integral to City's success as anyone in this season and beyond. The former Dortmund man won 2023 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in his first season with City, during which he saved his side roughly nine goals, according to post-shot expected-goal models.

So far this season he has yet to concede despite seeing opponents register more than 1.9 post-shot expected goals. Given that St. Louis failed to score in two of their games, he's probably been worth at least one extra point this season, and maybe two. His performance in Week 3, a 3-0 win at the LA Galaxy that could've been far different if not for his early heroics, earned him MLS Player of the Matchday honors.

Ben Lundt deputized for manager Olof Mellberg's squad in Saturday's match against a Seattle side that was also coming in considerably short-handed. Attackers Jordan Morris and Pedro de la Vega are out for several weeks with soft-tissue leg injuries, and winger Paul Arriola is likely done for the year after suffering a torn ACL in midweek Concacaf Champions Cup action.