It’s official, Red Bulls’ Gideon Baah is out for season

It wasn’t a typo: Gideon Baah is indeed out for the season.

On Monday, MLS rolled out updated rosters and status updates in a brazen move of transparency by the league (inside joke: MLS has often been criticized for being a bit murky with regards to rules). With regards to Baah, the league officially listed the Ghanaian defender as being on the season-ending injury list. It didn’t seem to add up as the player was seemingly pointed towards a return to the field just mere days ago.

This was confirmed Wednesday by Metro as Baah will miss the entirety of the 2017 season with a broken leg he suffered last summer. He played just nine matches last year, his first in MLS.

“After evaluating Gideon’s progress, we have made the decision that we think is best,” said Red Bulls sporting director Denis Hamlett in a statement. “This lets him focus on rehab with our medical staff. Our primary goal is making sure he has the time and resources to return to 100 percent health.”

As for why Baah will miss this year, the finer points are still unknown. Just a week ago he was jogging around the training pitch, and during the offseason he sounded optimistic about his 2017 season. Now it seems like a contribution from the much-hyped central defender will have to wait till next year.

The 25-year-old, who has appeared for Ghana’s national team, was bought by the Red Bulls last year from Finnish giants HJK Helsinki.