(Photo credit: Alan Poizner-Imagn Images)

Nashville SC will hope to see leading scorer Sam Surridge return Saturday night when they host a New York City FC side trying to rebound from a devastating injury to club legend Maxi Moralez.

Nashville (9-1-3, 30 points) enters the final weekend before the World Cup break two points in front of Lionel Messi's Inter Miami with a match in hand for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

While managing a run to the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals, the Coyotes have proven themselves as one of the league's deepest teams, remaining unbeaten in four league matches since losing Surridge to a back injury.

The Englishman could return and attempt to add to his nine-goal total Saturday, although it seems most likely he would come off the bench.

'Sam was able to complete, I would say, pieces of full-team training this week,' Nashville manager BJ Callaghan said Friday. 'And so, he still has a few more check boxes to hit today through a little bit of the morning tomorrow, but we are hopeful that he will be able to play some type of role for our team.'

Without Surridge, Hany Mukhtar and Warren Madrigal have picked up the slack, scoring three times each in his absence. Mukhtar's trio of goals came in a hat trick to propel Nashville to a 3-2 home win over LAFC last Sunday.

Meanwhile, NYCFC (5-5-4, 19 points) are potentially looking at life after Moralez, who suffered a torn ACL in Saturday's 1-1 draw against the New York Red Bulls.

The injury could mark the end of arguably the most important career in NYCFC history. The 39-year-old Argentine joined the club 10 years ago and helped it win the 2021 MLS Cup, its only major trophy.

Despite his age, Moralez had started every league match for the Cityzens in 2026 before he was forced off in the 39th minute of the Hudson River Derby.

Without him, NYCFC suffered a 1-0 loss at the Columbus Crew in Wednesday night's U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal. But the Cityzens are unbeaten with seven points from their last three league games.

'Our thoughts are trying to end this sequence of games before we go into the break as good as we can,' manager Pascal Jansen said Friday.

--Field Level Media