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Per a club release, the New England Revolution have announced that they've loaned midfielder Donnie Smith to their USL Pro affiliate, the Rochester Rhinos. The release specified this as a "short-term loan".
Smith will join goalkeeper Luis Soffner, defender Jossimar Sanchez, and midfielder Alec Sundly who are already with the Rhinos. He will now look to compete for minutes with Rochester's variety of attacking midfield options such as J.C. Banks, Minh Vu, and Steve Pinau not to mention their solid corps of capable forwards. That said, Smith should still do enough to get some playing time, which will be most important in the eyes of the Revolution front office.
Smith, a true left-sided player, took to the left-back position in Revolution preseason. He logged just over 360 minutes there and seemed to be progressing in that transition. Whether Rhinos coach Bob Lilley will prefer to deploy him there or on the left wing remains to be seen, but that may be an interesting storyline to keep an eye on.