Porter Discusses How Chancalay's Season-Ending Injury Affects The Revs
Porter: “There are mechanisms where you can get a little relief on a season-ending injury. How we use that, we have some ideas and some options that we’re entertaining right now.”
The New England Revolution are looking at options on how to manage the absence of Tomas Chancalay, who will soon undergo surgery to repair a partial tear of his right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
Chancalay’s injury occurred during the Revs’ home game against New York City FC on May 25. He played 11 minutes before being replaced by Esmir Bajraktervic.
The Argentine attacker joined the Revs on loan from Racing Club in Aug. 2023. He collected six goals in 11 games.
The Revolution brought Chancalay back as a Designated Player in 2024. He amassed two goals and one assist in 12 regular-season appearances this year. He also had four goals in five Concacaf Champions Cup games.
“It’s tough for our team and Tomas,” head coach Caleb Porter said. “I really feel for him. He was playing really well when he got injured.”
He later added, “With Tomas, we feel for him. We’re behind him. Obviously, it will be tough to have him out, but we’ve got to move on. We’ll support him. Obviously, we’ll get him the right medical attention and the surgery, similar to Dylan [Borrero] and Brandon Bye last year. You see how those guys have come back, so it will be no different, obviously, with him. But tough to lose a DP, obviously, for the year.”
The Revolution plan to put Chancalay on the Season-Ending Injury List, which will open a Designated Player slot, international slot, and senior roster slot.
They’re currently discussing what they’ll do with these resources.
“Along with Curt [Onalfo] and Chris [Tierney] and Remi [Roy], we’re already looking at ideas of how we can kind of manage his absence and what that means for our roster,” Porter said. “There are mechanisms where you can get a little relief on a season-ending injury. How we use that, we have some ideas and some options that we’re entertaining right now.”
Most importantly, wishing him the best in surgery and recovery. Love him when he's on his game.
That being said, the amount of freedom we have in filling his slot being that he's a an international and a DP is exciting. As I understand it, it just comes down to money. Could bring in a DP to take his spot, and hopefully by next year teams are allowed a 4th DP and the Revs use this as a backdoor to lock their 4th down early.
Then again, the last time we had this much time on our side was when we were looking for a coach, and we all know how long that played out.