Portland Hearts of Pine are exploring ways to navigate Masashi Wada's injury.
The Japanese midfielder had nine goals and one assist during his first USL League One season and seemed prime for another good campaign – scoring in the 2026 season opener – until a serious ankle injury suffered on Apr. 11 left him sidelined.
Not only is it difficult to find a player of Wada's skill, but doing it at this point of the season is nearly impossible.
"There aren't very many players available now...and any international player you can't bring in until July," head coach Bobby Murphy said. "So we've got to find a way to make it work until then. That also gives us some time to see who's going to be available in July, and maybe get a jump on that if we think we can find a solution to come give us a lift in the second half of the season."
Hearts have recently gotten productivity from players already on the roster. Matteo Kidd scored against Rhode Island FC, while Tyler Huck found the back of the net against Union Omaha. Both players featured alongside Titus Washington.
"I think what you get from Matteo is he's smart, he's a good little soccer player, he's just busy," Murphy said. "So he is a possible solution. I think Tyler's more like a nine-and-a-half – he's not a ten – which may be the solution as well.
"I think until we either come to a decision on if we're going to dip into the market this summer or not, we will have to move people in and out of there just based on circumstances."
