Atlanta United’s new center-back suffers knee injury

Atlanta United center-back Stian Gregersen suffered a knee injury in his side’s 2-0 triumph over Orlando City on Sunday night.

The 28-year-old, who joined from Ligue 2 side Bordeaux over the offseason, has suffered a meniscus injury and will miss the Five Stripes’ upcoming clash against Toronto FC, according to Doug Roberson of The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Roberson explains that while Gregersen is out on Saturday, Atlanta won’t know how long they’ll be without their Norwegian defender until later this week. Gregersen has started all three of Atlanta’s league games and was just starting to settle in nicely with the rest of the starting XI before sustaining the setback.

The injury comes at a tough time for Atlanta boss Gonzalo Pineda, who’s set to take on Toronto without fellow center-back Luis Abram, who’s been called up to represent Peru in the upcoming international break. Attacking stars Thiago Almada and Giorgos Giakoumakis were also called up to their respective Argentina and Greece national teams.

With Atlanta now without Gregersen and Abram for their upcoming fixture against the Reds, Pineda will more than likely have to deploy a Derrick Williams and Noah Cobb partnership to take on Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne.

The Five Stripes prepare to take on Toronto this Saturday at BMO Field, searching for their third straight win.