Columbus Crew striker Cucho Hernandez to return vs. Indy Eleven after knee injury

After missing six matches with a knee injury, Columbus Crew striker Cucho Hernandez is back for the team's U.S. Open Cup game against the Indy Eleven Wednesday night.

Hernandez will start in the Crew's third-round game in the U.S. Open Cup, his first game since March 11. The first sign of Hernandez's return came when he was seen exiting the team bus ahead of Wednesday's game.

Hernandez was a late scratch from the Crew lineup against the New York Red Bulls March 18 due to knee soreness that developed later in the week before the match.

"We’re going to have to be cautious with that because if he’s coming back too early, he could go back again," Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said in March. "For the moment, this is not something bad. We are happy for that. But this is an injury in the knee. For the moment, everything is OK, in terms of everything that he has to do to come back. In my mind, we’ll see. I don’t want to rush."

In the team's first three games, Hernandez has failed to score a goal on 12 shot attempts, adding an assist against DC United.

After scoring eight goals in his first eight games with the Crew last season, Hernandez has connected on one goal in 12 games since, assising two of the Crew's first five goals of the season.

Columbus Crew staring lineup vs. Indy Eleven

Here's who is set to start for the Crew Wednesday night.

• Goalkeeper Evan Bush

• Defender Philip Quinton

• Defender Milos Degenek

• Defender Steven Moreira

• Midfielder Darlington Nagbe

• Midfielder Sean Zawadzki

• Midfielder Isaiah Parente

• Forward Yaw Yeboah

• Forward Max Arfsten

• Forward Jacen Russell-Rowe

• Forward Cucho Hernandez

Nancy said Tuesday he expects to rotate his lineup throughout the Crew's matchup with the Indy Eleven Wednesday.

"Usually, the way I do things in terms of (playing) many games, I like to rotate," Nancy said. "After that, (this week) it’s Open Cup, but in the future it’s going to be also normal games. It depends. ... It’s all about the freshness and also trying to associate players regarding what we want to do against the opposition.

"We’re going to finalize (Tuesday) to see who we’re going to put on the team, but again, the team that I will put, this is a competitive team. We want to compete against any team."

Kickoff for the Crew's U.S. Open Cup matchup with the Indy Eleven is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Lower.com Field. The game is set to be streamed on the Crew's website.

 cgay@dispatch.com 

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Cucho Hernandez, Crew striker, set to return vs. Indy Eleven