Steve Goff: Bill Hamid looks to be out for a couple weeks

Andrew Dykstra was the starter in goal for D.C. United's most recent game, the 1-0 loss against the Seattle Sounders. It is good that he played well, because he will probably be in goal for the rest of July: Steve Goff is reporting that Bill Hamid is going to be out for a couple of weeks with lingering knee and hand injuries.

D.C. United Coach Ben Olsen says Bill Hamid is probably out for few weeks with nagging knee and hand injuries. More details to come ...

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) July 13, 2015

Bill Hamid has never been what I would call injury prone, but he has tended to pick up one or two minor injuries per year; his major injury was in his rookie year, when he had shoulder surgery. Also, knee and hand injuries sound more like repetitive use injuries, caused by a ridiculous schedule and the cruelties of our bodies, and not really something that the training staff could prevent.

All of this does highlight the fact that, between suspensions and injuries, D.C. United has not had their full first-choice lineup available at basically any time this season, and yet remain atop the Supporters Shield race. If players like Hamid, Chris Pontius, Luis Silva, and Michael Farfan can get healthy, they should all be starters for this team.

For the conspiracy minded among you, I highly doubt that this is a smokescreen related to some sort of transfer of Hamid overseas. However, the window is open in Europe and every time this sort of thing happens, people will rush to those conclusions. He hasn't played for the national team recently, wouldn't be likely to get a work permit in England, and would probably build his value by getting healthy and putting in the kind of run we know he has in him down the stretch.

UPDATE: D.C. United has announced the Hamid  will miss 4-6 weeks following a surgery to repair his meniscus in his right knee and a separate surgery on his flexor tendon in his right hand. So hopefully that means that these lingering problems will be cleared up once he heals.