Seattle Sounders fans across the country got a bit of a scare on Thursday. Why you may be asking? It was announced after training on Thursday the reason Sounders forward Obafemi Martins was not around was because he was going to need x-rays taken. Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid was not very forthcoming regarding why he needed x-rays.

“Oba wasn’t here,” Schmid said. “He was upstairs and we had to send him for an X-ray. He’s got a little bit of a complaint but we want to make sure with the X-ray and we’ll make a determination tomorrow.”

Schmid even joked as pulling a Bruce Arena on not revealing the reason. Arena, the Los Angeles Galaxy coach, has a history of not being very revealing when it comes to disclosing injuries. 

According to sounderatheart.com, the Sounders game notes list Martins injury as a tibia contusion. Matt Pentz from the Seattle Times tweeted: "Obafemi Martins update via Schmid: 'The X-rays looked alright, but he's still in a little bit of pain.' Clarified that it's a leg injury"

One can assume that if Martins is feeling any discomfort, he will not board the bus, or plane, to Vancouver and will stay behind.

Martins, who led the team with 17 goals and 13 assists last year, is second on the team in goals this year with six and also has two assists. If Martins cannot play on Saturday against the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Sounders will more than likely fill the spot with either Lamar Neagle or Chad Barrett. Neagle and Clint Dempsey are the two other players on the roster right now to have scored a goal. Dempsey and Martins have combined for 13 of the 15 goals scored.

That being said, the Sounders need other players to step up to the plate and create goal scoring opportunities. To only have three players scoring goals for you nine games into the season is a bad situation to be in. What are the Sounders going to do when Dempsey is called away for United States national team duty? What if the Martins injury causes him to be out multiple games? We have already seen what happens when both of the players are out of the lineup at the same time.

Just look back to the Sounders game back in March against FC Dallas. The Sounders had to go out of their normal 4-4-2 formation and go with a 4-2-3-1 with Barrett as the loan striker up top. The Sounders only managed seven shots, none on target, even though they had plenty of opportunities to put the ball into the back of the net.

Neagle seems the most likely to get the start, but as any Sounders fan knows, trying to figure out what Schmid will do is near to impossible. That being said, this writer sees them using a 4-4-2 formation with Dempsey and Neagle up top. Something similar to this:

Neagle-Dempsey

Pappa-Pineda-Alonso-Rose

Remick-Marshall-Evans-Mears

Frei

Makes you miss Kenny Cooper a little doesn't it?