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In the wild and wacky world that is the Toronto FC off season, one of the biggest questions (other than where are the strikers) has been what's the story with Torsten Frings? After spending most of the winter rehabbing his injured shoulder in Germany, Frings returned to Toronto for training camp and was pronounced to be on track to return to the first team for MLS First Kick on March 2nd.
Frings journeyed with the rest of the team to Florida for the Mickey Mouse Cup and saw an entire 20 minutes of game time during the 1-0 loss to Columbus to start the tournament. After that however, he was rarely seen and then just last week it was announced that he was returning to Toronto for "personal reasons" and that he would continue to rehab here in the great white north. After that nothing has been said from either camp and the silence has been deafening.
This morning twitter blew up with rumours that the cutting of ties between Frings and TFC was coming at any moment. It all started with a tweet from Duane Rollins:
Hearing a very strong rumour that #TFC is going to release Torsten Frings today or tomorrow. #MLS Will update as I know more.
— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) February 22, 2013
And from there it just snowballed with various writers from the football world chiming in with what they had heard:
I understand the rumours are true. Highly likely Torsten Frings is leaving Toronto FC. Club in discussions to buyout his contract #MLS
— Luke Wileman (@LukeWileman) February 22, 2013
ONLINE NOW: Source claims Torsten Frings is two months away from match fitness ... @lukewileman confirms buyout talks torontosun.com/2013/02/22/tor…
— Kurtis Larson (@KurtLarSUN) February 22, 2013
After that the flurry of discussions about whether this is a good idea or the worst thing ever took place with most agreeing that it may indeed be time for us to say goodbye to Frings. We've still heard nothing official from Toronto FC, but it seems that in this case where there's smoke, there's likely fire. And it wouldn't be the first time that news of this magnitude was quietly released on a Friday afternoon or evening.
We'll keep you updated and the second this is confirmed we'll let you know. In the meantime - what do you think? Is this the right move for both parties? Frings can return to Germany and start his coaching career and TFC gets another DP spot and some more money to use as they slowly rebuild the club. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!