Alonso Martínez got just about the best circumstances possible to make his much-anticipated return to action for New York City FC.
The 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake was essentially in hand, given Martínez's number 16 went up in green on the fourth official's board in the 88th minute after both of the team's goals had been scored. There was no need to push for another goal, so Martínez had no added pressure atop what would already be an emotional, abnormal, significant moment, his first minutes since his big injury nine months back.
It had been since Thursday, November 13, 2025, when Martínez last set foot on a pitch for a competitive soccer match. That night, the New York City FC striker ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee while playing for Costa Rica on the artificial turf surface inside Ergilio Hato Stadium in Curaçao in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Haiti.
Martínez had an uneventful first post-injury shift, registering five touches of the ball, one off-target shot, and at least one high-speed sprint while trying to create a transitional moment to hurt RSL, one that didn't come off, but at least showed a glimpse of how potentially dangerous Martínez can be while leading the NYCFC attack and especially its counter-attack.
The reintegration and regaining of match fitness will take time, but that's secondary to the significance of Martínez simply being back. New York City FC and the player have each waited patiently through a long, up-and-down season to get to this point, and his return does a ton to boost the team, psychologically and competitively.
The mental side effects
For outsiders like us in the media or fans watching along from afar, his rehab has been one to see unfold through the lens of social media, with sporadic updates and milestones shared by Alonso and by NYCFC as they tracked the progress of the club's leading scorer during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Each hurdle of what's known to be a grueling rehab process got cleared, with each update shared by head coach Pascal Jansen pointing to Martínez being on track and inching closer to the moment he achieved against RSL, stepping back into the MLS fray for NYCFC. In mid-August, we learned Martínez was heading back into full-team training, so anticipation built that September would be the month to bring this return.
Then, as Martínez's weeks in training added up and a return seemed imminent, NYCFC started getting creative with it, including Martínez on the bench as an unused substitute twice for back-to-back home games, first the 0-0 draw with Nashville SC and then the 1-2 loss to New England Revolution.
Pascal Jansen explained after the Nashville game that he had zero intention of actually sending Martínez in to play vs Nashville, instead wanting him on the bench since that match fell almost exactly nine months to the day of his injury, and since he wanted Martínez to get used to the feeling of once again being an active player after such a long layoff. The same remained true in the New England loss: Neither match featured Martínez ever getting up off the bench to warm up as though he was set to enter as a substitute, with his time spent on the bench meant to get him ready for when his number would get called, as it was this weekend in Utah.
Jansen and his staff deployed a rehab plan to get Martínez back to health, but it was interesting to see this approach taken to actually re-integrating him into the active matchday squad. Twice they essentially played down one active roster spot, omitting potential contributors like Maximo Carrizo or Cooper Flax from the gameday roster to help ease Martínez's transition back to being an active player. That man-management approach built up to this well-timed re-debut for Martínez, setting him up to dip a toe into calm waters in a game that was already penciled in as a road win once Martínez entered.
"We've seen up close all these months how Alonso was working so hard in order to get his rehab to the next level every time. I can tell you, when you have a severe injury like Tico [Martínez] has had, you will be in some dark places throughout the nine months in your rehab," is what Pascal Jansen said while discussing Martínez's return immediately following the win in Utah.
