{"id":82523,"date":"2025-06-06T01:40:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T01:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/82523\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T01:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T01:40:21","slug":"mls-whitecaps-suffer-teamwide-illness-after-champions-cup-final-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/82523\/","title":{"rendered":"MLS\u2019 Whitecaps suffer teamwide illness after Champions Cup final in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vancouver Whitecaps say a \u201csignificant number<\/a>\u201d of players and staff members fell ill with gastrointestinal symptoms following the team\u2019s 5-0 loss to Cruz Azul in the Concacaf Champions Cup final on Saturday.<\/p>\n

At least 33 members of the traveling party were affected, a source familiar with the situation told The Athletic. The source requested anonymity due to the medical sensitivity of the situation. Only seven out of the 26 players who traveled did not present with any symptoms.<\/p>\n

The club canceled a training session on Wednesday out of precaution and instead held a modified individual closed session on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the Major League Soccer team said it was working closely with its medical team, local infectious disease consultants and Vancouver Coastal Health to monitor the outbreak. The club said each affected player has been provided with an individualized program by medical and performance staff to support their recovery and continued preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health and well-being of our players and staff remain our top priority,\u201d the club said in its statement. \u201cWe are actively monitoring the situation and will provide updates as more information becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of the outbreak raises significant concerns about the Whitecaps\u2019 ability to field a competitive roster for their scheduled match against their regional rivals, the Seattle Sounders, on Sunday in Seattle. The club has not yet announced whether the game will proceed as planned or if it will seek a postponement from MLS.<\/p>\n

The situation is further complicated by the fact that nine Whitecaps players were already scheduled to miss Sunday\u2019s game due to international duty. Canadian national team players Ali Ahmed, Sam Adekugbe and Jayden Nelson are among those training with the men\u2019s national team ahead of the inaugural Canadian Shield tournament, per The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

The teamwide illness caps a disappointing week for the Whitecaps, who saw their impressive 15-game unbeaten streak across all competitions come to a crushing end with a resounding 5-0 defeat to Cruz Azul in Saturday\u2019s Champions Cup final. Vancouver had been hoping to capture its first major continental trophy.<\/p>\n

Cruz Azul\u2019s dominant victory not only denied Vancouver the Champions Cup, but the trip created additional health challenges that could impact the team\u2019s domestic campaign.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Kirby Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vancouver Whitecaps say a \u201csignificant number\u201d of players and staff members fell ill with gastrointestinal symptoms following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,2291,4,1586,9625,4967,11463],"class_list":{"0":"post-82523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-draft","12":"tag-mls","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-vancouver-whitecaps-fc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}