Brooks Lennon was supposed to miss several matches in Atlanta United’s season after undergoing surgery to repair a left shoulder injured in last year’s playoff series against Inter Miami.
Coincidentally, Lennon, with a lot of help from Atlanta United’s medical staff, his own research and conversations with players such as Weston McKennie and Michael Parkhurst who suffered similar injuries, beat the schedule by several weeks and is available for Sunday’s match against Miami at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We all kind of collaborated and formulated a plan as soon as the injury happened,” Lennon said Wednesday. “And just with my mentality, how I approached rehab is we wanted it to go faster than normal. So really proud of how I approached it.”
The injury happened in Game 1 against Miami on Oct. 25 last year in a fluky way. Lennon and Miami’s Diego Gomez were competing for the ball. Gomez, behind Lennon, reached out and pulled on his arm. It’s a play that happens dozens of times in a match. This time, it resulted in Lennon suffering a total dislocation. He was expected to be out as long as six months.
Lennon said he reached out to 10 players, including McKennie, who didn’t undergo surgery, and Parkhurst, who did, to gather information.
“I’ve done more shoulder research than I thought I ever would in my life,” he said. “I just wanted to know, when it happened, kind of the process because I had never had an injury like that before. It’s a very rare injury in soccer, it’s more like in baseball and NFL and things like that. I was able to formulate a good plan.”
Lennon underwent surgery Nov. 4. He rejoined the team shortly into the start of preseason training but couldn’t undergo any contact. He said he was cleared for contact near the end of training camp.
Lennon and Jack Kimber, Atlanta United’s fitness coach, then began getting him ready for contact with controlled drills.
Last week, during a training session, Lennon landed on his left shoulder after a tackle, got up and kept going.
“The shoulder’s ready, for sure,” he said.
Now that Lennon is ready to play, it will be interesting to see what manager Ronny Deila does.
Matthew Edwards, a Homegrown, started in place of Lennon and performed fairly well, considering the three matches were the first league starts of his career.
While Edwards may be a better one-on-one defender, Lennon is one the more prodigious crossers in MLS the past few years. Lennon tied for the league lead in crosses (83) last season, was sixth (63) in 2023, and second (75) in 2022.
Held scoreless in back-to-back matches for the first time since 2022, Atlanta United needs goals and goals can come from crosses.
Lennon said he thinks he fits what Deila wants.
“I‘m really excited to get back on the field and get acclimated, and especially, haven’t had the opportunity to play in a MLS match with (Miguel Almiron) or (Emmanuel) Latte Lath, or, some of the new guys that have come in, and I’m really keen for that,” Lennon said. “I think I’m going to have a super successful season. And I hope we can build on that as a team as well.”
Lennon isn’t the only new weapon that Deila has.
Pedro Amador, last year’s starting fullback on the left side, returned last week and Deila said performed well in the 0-0 draw with the New York Red Bulls. Sunday’s match could be the first time since Oct. 25 that the two will appear together.
“We haven’t scored in two games, but I think the good thing is we’re creating a lot of scoring chances, so I would be more concerned if we weren’t creating those,” Amador said. “Brooks is coming back, and he brings his quality, and he’s a good crosser of the ball. So I think we just need to be a little more concentrated in that final aspect, and our finishing and we’re working on that.”
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Atlanta United’s 2025 schedule
Feb. 22 Atlanta United 3, Montreal 2
March 1 Charlotte 2, Atlanta United 0
March 8 Atlanta United 0, New York Red Bulls 0
March 16 vs. Miami, 7 p.m., Apple
March 22 at Cincinnati, 2:30 p.m., Apple
March 29 vs. NYCFC, 7:30 p.m., Apple
April 5 vs. Dallas, 7:30 p.m., Apple
April 12 vs. New England, 2:30 p.m., Apple, Fox
April 19 at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m., Apple
April 26 at Orlando, 7 p.m., Apple, Fox
May 3 vs. Nashville, 2:30 p.m., Apple, Fox
May 10 at Chicago, 2:30 p.m., Apple
May 14 at Austin, 8:30 p.m., Apple
May 17 vs. Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m., Apple
May 25 vs. Cincinnati, 7 p.m., Apple
May 28 vs. Orlando, 7:30 p.m., Apple
May 31 at Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m., Apple
June 12 at NYCFC, 7:30 p.m., Apple
June 25 at Columbus, 7:30 p.m., Apple
June 28 at Miami, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 5 at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 12 at Toronto, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 16 vs. Chicago, 7:30 p.m., Apple, FS1
July 19 vs. Charlotte, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 26 vs. Seattle, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 30 vs. Necaxa, Leagues Cup
Aug. 2. vs. Pumas in Orlando, Leagues Cup
Aug. 6 vs. Atlas, Leagues Cup
Aug. 9 at Montreal, 7:30 p.m., Apple
Aug. 16 at Colorado, 9:30 p.m., Apple
Aug. 24 vs. Toronto, 5 p.m., Apple
Aug. 30 at Nashville, 8:30 p.m. Apple
Sept. 13 vs. Columbus, 7:30 p.m., Apple
Sept. 20 vs. San Diego, 4:30 p.m., Apple
Sept. 27 at New England, 7:30 p.m., Apple
Oct. 5 at LAFC, 10:30 p.m., Apple
Oct. 18 vs. D.C. United, 6 p.m., Apple
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