Portland Timbers defender Vytas out, Liam Ridgewell questionable for New York City FC game

Portland Timbers defender Vytas is still working his way back from injury and will be unavailable for Sunday's game against New York City FC.

Vytas has been dealing with a hamstring injury since the end of preseason. The club had thought he was nearing full health a few weeks ago and even brought him to Chicago for a game against the Chicago Fire on March 31. But Vytas did not play in the match and has not progressed as expected in recent weeks. 

"He's still working through the injury," Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese said. "He's not there yet. We have to be patient with him. He's working very hard to try to come back, but he's not there yet."

Savarese also could not say whether center back Liam Ridgewellwould make his return to the game day roster Sunday against New York City FC. 

Ridgewell has not been on the game day roster for four matches in a row, despite being healthy for three of the four games. Savarese said last week that the coaching staff had a plan to reintegrate Ridgewell into the lineup at some point, but whether Ridgewell's return comes Sunday against New York City remains unclear. 

Ridgewell was expected to participate in a team scrimmage Sunday, but had to sit out due to some pain in his calf. He was back in full training Tuesday. 

"Unfortunately, he couldn't train on Sunday when we expected him to be able to participate in a little scrimmage because he was still feeling something in his calf," Savarese said. "But he practiced fully this morning and we're evaluating and he might be part of the plan this week. He's always part of the team. He's always an important component and we're evaluating week-to-week to see which are the 18 we have to have for each match."

Timbers winger Dairon Asprilla, who was not in the 18 for Saturday's game against Minnesota United, performed well in Sunday's team scrimmage and will see minutes with Portland's USL club, T2, on Wednesday. 

"I'm trying to always have the 18 that I think are more suited for a game," Savarese said. "But also the ones that have been doing something more during the practices and that's why I had the 18 that I had for the past weekend."