Claros Suspended?

Earlier this week, the MLS Disciplinary Committee came out with their fines and suspensions for games this past week. Included in that was a fine for Igor Juliao for hands to the head/face of New England. The only suspension announced was on Colorado Rapids midfielder, Carlos Alvarez for entering the field of play and leaving the technical area as he celebrated a goal by teammate Gabriel Torres.

Then today ahead of Sporting KC's game against DC United, on the Disciplinary Summary on the MLS site stated that Sporting midfielder, Jorge Claros was suspended for 3 games for "inappropriate comments." Shortly after the suspension was pointed out, the suspension disappeared from the league website.

For Sporting's game tonight, Claros was not in the 18 for Sporting, a surprise if he was not suspended. With Aurelien Collin battling a nagging ankle injury most people would have expected Claros to start in midfield with Lawrence Olum starting next to Matt Besler in central defense. Instead Olum was in midfield with Kevin Ellis partnering Besler.

There does appear to be some sort of discipline handed down to Claros even though it's not been announced as coach Peter Vermes answered a question about it when he was asked about it post game tonight. Vermes saying he doesn't know the length, or the reason of the suspension to me feels like a flat out lie. If I'm the head coach of a team and one of the players that I expected to contribute in a game on Friday is suspended, the first question I'm asking the league representative on the phone is "Why?". And being a pain to them until they answer that question. From there my next question would be for how long the player is suspended. I just can't see Vermes not demanding answers to those two questions from the representative of the league who made the call on the suspension.

As for the suspension itself, there are only two things that I can think of that would lead to a suspension for "inappropriate comments." Either Claros said something that was homophobic or racist. Other than those two things I'm not sure that there's something that the league would suspend a player for three games for saying. If the three game suspension stands, Claros' regular season at least is over. Counting tonight's game against DC United, KC had four games left. The Honduran though will miss next Friday's game against the Chicago Fire. The Disciplinary Committee has stated that missing a game on national team duty does not count double as part of a suspension. That means that if the three game suspension stands, the only game that Claros will play between now and the playoffs is the trip to Costa Rica to play Deportivo Saprissa.