It's unclear whether star forward Cucho Hernandez will make his return to the squad when the Columbus Crew host D.C. United on Saturday night.
Hernandez scored a club-best 16 goals last season for Columbus (3-1-2, 11 points), then added five more in the playoffs during the team's run to its third MLS Cup title. He has three goals so far this campaign.
But he has been out of the lineup during the Crew's last two games, including Tuesday night's Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal first leg against Tigres UANL.
Manager Wilfried Nancy has said only that Cucho's omission is due to team policy, and after the 1-1 draw against Tigres he has still not given a clear indication of when the Colombian could return.
"You have to nurture the culture," Nancy told the Columbus Dispatch this week. "So most important for me is to be aligned with the club, is to be aligned about what we want to do, and the way you want to do things. But there is no drama. Everything has been clear with Cucho, with the club."
In D.C. United (2-1-3, nine points), Columbus will face an opponent that statistically has been among the most dangerous in MLS.
Christian Benteke leads D.C. United with four goals, however no other member of the team has more than one.
Getting more production from across the roster is the next step for first-year coach Troy Lesesne.
"It definitely shows you we're getting into the areas we want," Lesesne said of the analytic stats. "On the flip side of that, what I would challenge our group on, and what I have challenged our group on, is that we want to materialize those into actual goals, right? Expected goals and actual goals are sometimes two different stories."
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