By Canadian Press

Injured Toronto FC fullback/wingback Richie Laryea in England to see a specialist

Mar 20, 2025 | 11:42 AM

TORONTO — Toronto FC has sent fullback/wingback Richie Laryea to England to see a specialist to get a handle on his hamstring injury.

Laryea, 30, has not played since March 1 when he was forced to leave Toronto’s 4-2 loss at Orlando in the 22nd minute. The Canadian international missed three months last season after going down in the season opener, subsequently undergoing surgery in March 2024 to repair the same hamstring in London, England, by Dr. Fares Haddad.

“There are a couple of different specialists over there,” coach Robin Fraser said Thursday. “And I think they just want to make sure that they proceed in the best possible fashion with the most information.”

The injury has also forced Laryea to miss Canada’s CONCACAF Nations League games in California this week.

Fraser, meanwhile, offered little concrete on the status of out-of-favour Italian star Lorenzo Insigne, who has yet to dress this season.

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“It’s literally the same answer I give you every week, which is I’m going to pick the group that I think gives us the best chance to win,” the coach said. “And certainly he will be considered as he has been considered every week.”

Fraser said it had not been decided yet whether Insigne would travel to Saturday’s game at the New York Red Bulls.

There has been speculation Insigne might get a reprieve given Toronto is missing captain Jonathan Osorio, fellow midfielder Deybi Flores and wingback Tyrese Spicer, who are away on international duty with Canada, Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively.

Insigne is still training with the first team and MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley noted this week that the former Napoli captain has shown “a great deal of professionalism at this point,” given the circumstances.

“The conversation (GM) Jason (Hernandez) and I had with Robin on the weekend was that if you feel, with the plethora of injuries that we have, that Lorenzo can help the team, then by all means (use him),” Pelley said in an interview. “We understand we want to play a different style of football but there’s no question that we’re riddled with injuries and now we have some people that are leaving and playing (international games).”

“If Robin Fraser wants to activate him and play him this week against New York, that is totally his decision,” added Pelley.

The club has been trying to move Insigne, who has managed 14 goals and 14 assists in 54 regular-season games since joining the club midway through the 2022 season.

Insigne, whose salary of US$15.4 million ranked second only to Miami’s Lionel Messi last year, has turned down transfer offers to move to clubs in Brazil, Italy, Spain and Turkey. A move to another MLS club fell apart recently.

Norwegian striker Ola Brynhildsen, pulled from the starting lineup last Saturday after being injured in the warm-up before the 2-1 loss to visiting Chicago, worked out with a trainer in the portion of training open to the media Thursday.

Asked about the timeline for Brynhildsen’s recovery Fraser said: “It won’t be this weekend but I don’t think it will be long.”

On the plus side, injured defenders Kevin Long, Henry Wingo, Sigurd Rosted and Raoul Petretta were all back in training.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press