Omar Bravo Out 3-6 Weeks With Sports Hernia

The year may have started with a record 14 Designated Players, but alarmingly few of them are playing on a regular basis. Omar Bravo just became the latest DP to miss significant time when it was announced that he'll miss the next three to six weeks with a sports hernia. Bravo, who scored two goals in Sporting Kansas City debut during a Week 1 victory over Chivas USA, has only played in two MLS matches this season. He last played the first half of SKC's U.S. Open Cup qualifying match on Wednesday. Bravo missed SKC's last MLS game after sitting out with a red-card suspension.

Bravo is far from the only DP to miss time this season. The Vancouver Whitecaps Eric Hassli has already missed one game and will have to miss another with red-card suspensions; the New York Red Bulls have been without the services of Thierry Henry (injury) and Rafa Marquez (national team duty) at various points; the Seattle Sounders cut ties with one DP (Blaise Nkufo), have another injured (Fredy Montero) and benched a third (Alvaro Fernandez). In fact, David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy) and Andres Mendoza (Columbus Crew) are the only two DPs to have played in all of their teams games in just the fourth week of the season.