Octavio Rivero didn’t play Saturday in Philadelphia, and the striker has, indeed, played his final game for the Whitecaps.

Rivero, the 24-year-old striker from Uruguay, will join Colo-Colo in Chile, as first reported by media outlets there.

An official announcement is expected in the next couple of days. The Whitecaps on Saturday settled for a tweet, saying Rivero wouldn’t dress for the match and “We have no further comment at this time.”

Vancouver (7-7-3) then went out and won 3-2 at Talen Energy Stadium without Rivero. Andrew Jacobson, Kekuta Manneh and Christian Bolanos provided the goals.

The big question, of course, is what the Caps’ plan will be for replacing Rivero, a designated player who earned close to $900,000 and scored 12 goals in 46 MLS games, with five of those coming in his first six outings.

The summer transfer window opens July 8 and coach Carl Robinson has already been looking at centre-backs.

He’s had Trinidad and Tobago international Daneil Cyrus in for training stint and, more intriguing, out-of-contract Canadian international defender David Edgar, who joined the Caps for practice in Toronto on Wednesday and Thursday.

Robinson, though, will have to bolster the roster up front. Japanese striker Masato Kudo is recovering from a broken jaw and still weeks away. Erik Hurtado played well Saturday and Blas Perez offers spice, smarts and a few goals off the bench, but they need an out-and-out goal scorer.

Rivero was supposed to be that guy. He looked like he was for a couple of months. He’s looked frustrated a lot since then, although he’s come out of his slump lately, scoring excellent goals against Houston and Ottawa.

The Caps will have his DP slot to play with, and if they don’t have someone lined up as a long-term move, they’ll have to swing a short-term loan deal to remain truly competitive.

If the Caps sign another DP this summer, the cap hit for the rest of the season will be $228,750 if he’s 24 or older. If they sign a young DP, the cap hit for half a season is $150,000.

As for the financial implications of the Rivero deal, reports when he signed here in 2015 pegged the transfer fee going to Chilean side O’Higgins at $2-3 million US.

No word on how much of that the Caps will recover but this is a move that seems to be in everyone’s best interest.

So now the search is on — again — for that true difference-maker up front, someone to make Caps fans forget about Camilo.

And it’s shaping up to be an intriguing summer in Cascadia because Seattle and Portland have forward issues, too.

Sounders’ GM Garth Lagerwey said weeks ago he’d look to add two top-end players in the July transfer window with the squad struggling since Obafemi Martins’ departure.

And in Portland, representatives of leading scorer Fanendo Adi are playing games through the media, agitating for a transfer that the Timbers say won’t happen.

mweber@postmedia.com

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