Seattle Sounders FC goalkeeper Stefan Frei took an accidental knee to the head with seconds remaining in stoppage time and was taken off the field in an ambulance during his team’s 1-1 draw with the Columbus Crew on Sunday.
Frei jumped forward to make a play on a free kick, and as he came down, his head collided with the knee of a Crew player. Frei dropped to the turf at Lumen Field and teammates signaled to the sideline for help.
Frei said in a social media post Sunday night that he was home resting and “incredibly grateful to all the staff that looked after me.”
“What resonates is all the messages, calls, and love I’ve received from so many of you,” he wrote. “Thank you — truly…. It means more than I can put into words. I feel the support, and I’m thankful for every single one of you.”
Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer and the Crew’s Wilfried Nancy agreed to call the game with Columbus due for a corner kick.
As Frei was stretchered to the waiting ambulance, Seattle fans chanted his first name.
An emotional Schmetzer thanked Crew coach Nancy after the match for being adamant about stopping the match, saying: “Everybody knew the match should have been stopped. So thank you Wilfried.”
Frei, 39, has played for the Sounders since 2014. He helped Seattle win the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019, and he was named MLS Cup MVP in 2016. He was an All-Star in 2017.
Born in Switzerland, Frei’s family moved to the United States when he was a teenager and he was a standout at the University of California.
Paul Rothrock scored a goal for Seattle in the 43rd minute as the Sounders, while Diego Rossi scored for the Crew.
Frei, who is retiring at the end of the season, had three saves for Seattle (8-6-6).
Columbus (10-3-8), which had won three in a row, are unbeaten in four straight.
Rothrock put away a one-touch shot, off a feed from Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, from the left-center of the area to make it 1-1.
Rossi gave Columbus a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute. Ibrahim Aliyu, on the counter-attack, slipped a perfectly-placed cross between three defenders to a charging Rossi for a first-touch finish from point-blank range.
The Sounders are 8-4-6 all time against Columbus, which includes a 4-0 road win in the only meeting between the clubs last season.
Kossa-Rienzi was shown yellow cards in the 87th minute and the second minute of stoppage and the Sounders played the final few minutes a man down.
Evan Bush stopped one shot for Columbus.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
