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VIDEO: Already without midfielder Josh Simpson when Canada started the semifinal round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, manager Stephen Hart now has to reconfigure again without Dwayne De Rosario.
Hart had to devise a strategy for the start of qualifying after Simpson broke his leg in May playing for Swiss club Young Boys, and now he'll have to come up with another after having lost De Rosario with a strained ligament in his left knee in a 2-0 loss to Panama on September 11.
The D.C. United midfielder, last year's Most Valuable Player Award winner in Major League Soccer, was reportedly expected to miss 10-12 weeks.
"You can't really replace Dwayne in terms of the skill set and what he brings to the team on and off the field," Hart said Thursday on a conference call with reporters. "The whole situation with Dwayne, with the loss of Josh, we needed someone on left. Dwayne did the job before and was willing to do it.
"Now Marcel (de Jong) comes in sort of as a replacement of Dwayne, and we'll see what happens then."
Hart has two weeks before Canada hosts Cuba in Toronto on October 12, with a match against Honduras in San Pedro Sula four days later. Canada sits third in Group C with seven points, two points behind Panama and behind Honduras on goal difference. Only two teams will advance.
Against Panama, Hart's game plan disintegrated when De Rosario was injured in a collision with Felipe Baloy before five minutes were gone.
"In Panama, we had trained to approach game in a certain way with Dwayne playing off the striker, Marcel coming off the left," Hart said. "Dwayne got injured, so we never got a chance to work on what we trained on. We didn't get a chance to apply what we had done."
At least some encouraging news for Hart is that he feels Eintracht Frankfurt forward Oliver Occean should be healthy - despite limping off against Nurnberg on September 21 and missing the club's Tuesday match against Dortmund, and Iain Hume has found a club - English third-division Doncaster Rovers -- and should be in form.
"Iain is playing again," Hart said. "He is back playing again. That's good for the team and the program. He wasn't even in with a team training (last time)."
