Christian Mafla won’t play until June

The start of Christian Mafla’s career in New England has not gone well. He has barely appeared on the field and it looks like that won’t be happening anytime soon.

In the preseason, Mafla sparingly made appearances. Revolution fans started to worry about his status for the regular season. It seems like the cause for concern was valid.

Mafla has only made one start in the 2021 MLS season and even in that he only played 54 minutes. While he showed some promise with his ability to get forward and distribute the ball, the 28-year-old struggled at times defending.

A week ago, Bruce Arena gave an update on Mafla’s status saying that he had his first practice with the first team. Now ahead of the matchup against the New York Red Bulls, Revolution fans got more bad news about Mafla. He won’t be playing for a while.

“No, he won’t play this week, but he’s improving,” Arena said. He is improving his fitness. He is healthy now, so we’re hopeful that once we get into June, he’ll get on the field for us.”

Looking at that timeline the next opportunity for Mafla to get playing time is on June 19th when the Revs head to NYCFC. After New England’s matchup against FC Cincinnati on May 29th, there is a break in the schedule due to the FIFA international window. During this time the United States Men’s National Team will be participating in the CONCACAF Nations League.

This should give Mafla plenty of time to rest and recover. Hopefully when New England heads to New York he will be ready to start playing 90 minutes and make the impact that was expected when he was first acquired.

The Columbian has earned the nickname ‘glass legs” due to his inability to stay healthy. So far it’s safe to say that the left back has lived up to his reputation.

So Revolution fans will once again have to be patient when it comes to seeing Mafla play. As long as New England continues to play well fans likely won’t be too concerned with Mafla’s prolonged absence.