Let it be a lesson to all: Sometimes friendlies are not very friendly. Sometimes, they're outright dangerous. Bright Dike tore his Achilles tendon in the Portland Timbers' first major league soccer match, a friendly against PDL club Ventura County Fusion. The striker left Friday's game in the 20th minute and underwent surgery for the injury on Monday.
Jokes aside, this is really no laughing matter for the Timbers. Although Dike's surgery was successful, he'll still be out a minimum of six months, meaning he likely won't take to the field for Portland until late August at the earliest. The powerful and fast striker scored ten goals for the Timbers in USSF Division 2 last season, and was one of the first Portland players signed to an MLS contract, back in October. Although he would have been competing with new signings Kenny Cooper and Jorge Perlaza for starting roles, Dike was expected to find plenty of minutes in this first season of MLS. Instead, he'll be working hard to recover as quickly as possible.