After some steps forward, Zack Steffen’s knee sent him one backward.
The Colorado Rapids’ goalkeeper will miss 4-6 weeks after undergoing “successful” surgery to address an injury to his right medial meniscus, the club announced Tuesday. Before joining the Rapids in 2023, Steffen had surgery on his left meniscus, which kept him out several months.
The 30-year-old suffered the injury during training camp with the U.S. Men’s National Team ahead of two friendlies before the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. Before going down, he was expected to make the final Gold Cup roster and may have been the starter for Mauricio Pochettino’s squad.
With the Rapids, he had put together one of his best starts to a season to date. In 11 MLS starts, he made 48 saves, good for the most per game of any goalkeeper in the league this season.
But injuries started to creep in. Against San Diego FC a month ago, he injured an oblique muscle on an awkward scrambling defensive play. He sat out until reporting to USMNT camp on June 1, but left just a few days later.
For Steffen, fortune has been about as unfriendly as it gets. Whether it’s little injuries, sickness, or, in this case, surgery, bouts of unavailability seem to come right on the precipice of a breakthrough with the national team.
Big picture, with a relatively underwhelming goalkeeper room at the international level, this window offered a great opportunity for Steffen to impress Pochettino ahead of next year’s World Cup on U.S. soil.
In his place, third-string Rapid Nico Hansen has been excellent as backup Adam Beaudry also sat with an ankle injury for upwards of a month. In five starts, he’s recorded two clean sheets (one fewer than Steffen) and has only conceded five goals, none of which could really be pinned on Hansen alone. The Rapids will continue to lean on the 23-year-old while Steffen recovers.
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