MONTREAL – Montreal Impact midfielder Felipe’s omission from the starting XI last Wednesday came as a bit of a shock.
With a goal and an assist in his previous three games, the Brazilian had, it seemed, hit form that warranted a start in the Amway Canadian Championship finals first leg against the Vancouver Whitecaps. While he did come on for Collen Warner in the 62nd minute of a match that ended scoreless, Impact head coach Marco Schällibaum had a logical explanation for initially resting Felipe: He had passed kidney stones only days ago.
“One hour after the game [against Real Salt Lake the previous Saturday], I started to feel pain,” Felipe told reporters last week. “It was really bad. I had to go to the hospital really fast. I’d never felt something like that.”
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Felipe gave his typical chuckle when he later said he never wanted to experience such discomfort, but the days preceding the Vancouver game were no laughing matter. Kidney stones cause severe pain, which left no choice for the Impact midfielder but to alleviate it through medication.
“From 0 to 100 in 10 minutes,” Felipe said of the the severity of the pain.
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The 22-year-old maintains that he forgot about his health problems when he stepped on the field against Vancouver, but he wasn’t his usual self. Felipe spent half an hour on the field and was barely involved as the Impact put the Whitecaps net under siege.
But considering the fact that he’d been in a hospital room hours earlier, he is simply pleased that this whole thing is behind him and that Montreal are back in MLS action next weekend.
“I wasn’t 100 percent, but when you’re playing a final, you give everything you have,” Felipe said. “You want to do everything, but you can’t. … Now I’m good and hopefully I’ll get better every day so I’m ready for the next game.”
The Impact next play the Philadelphia Union at Stade Saputo on Saturday.
