The brutal injury suffered by Andrés Perea in Game 3 now has an official diagnosis, as New York City FC today announced the midfielder had surgery to address a right lower leg fracture.
Perea suffered the injury in the 71st minute, landing awkwardly and devastatingly after going up for an aerial duel. It was immediately apparent to everyone on the field that he'd suffered a significant leg injury.
There was no recovery timeline shared by the team, just that Perea had surgery at Montefiore Einstein Medical Center on Sunday, November 9 and that he'll begin his rehabilitation immediately.
It's a crushing blow for Perea, with Pascal Jansen in his post-match press conference immediately acknowledging that the midfielder would be out for the long term.
The 24-year-old midfielder set career-highs for starts and minutes played in 2025, in Pascal Jansen's Starting XI on 23 occasions while appearing 28 times and logging 1,970 minutes across all competitions. That surpasses the 16 starts and 27 appearances totaling 1,736 minutes Perea played in 2021 for Orlando City SC.
Matthew Mangam
He'd grown into a vital part of the midfield for New York City under Jansen. Since June 12, Perea earned starts in all 19 of New York City's MLS matches he was eligible to appear in, save for the September 13 away match vs Chicago Fire FC when he was suspended for yellow card accumulation.
Now, New York City FC will make the rest of its run through the MLS Cup Playoffs without Perea, and the hope has to be that his injury doesn't cost him too much of the 2026 season.
The midfield will look very different for NYCFC when they face one of Perea's former teams, Philadelphia Union, in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. That's because in addition to Perea's injury absence, Aiden O'Neill will be out suspended after picking up three yellow cards in Round One against Charlotte.
The bigger concern, though, is Perea's health and recovery. It was the kind of injury that cast a shadow over the remainder of the game in which it occurred, and left you wishing for it to not turn out to be as bad as it looked.
Get well soon, Andrés.
