The situation won't be quite as dire as it was a week ago, but the Seattle Sounders are going to be short-handed again when they host FC Dallas on Saturday. In addition to missing Marco Pappa (national-team duty) and Chad Barrett (hamstring), Osvaldo Alonso is listed as "day-to-day" and Brad Evans' availability is still in question after returning to the Sounders after spending the last week with the United States in Europe.

Alonso's status comes as a bit of a surprise, considering he just got a week off due to a suspension. But it also sounds like he may have been nursing an injury already.

"It's been a little bit slower than we expected," Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid told the media on Thursday. "We'll just have to continue to see."

Obafemi Martins, who missed last week's game after undergoing nose surgery, has returned to full training and is wearing a mask. He's at least expected to play and could even start.

"With the (nose) injury and the (tibial contusion) that he had, has really only trained maybe a week and a half out of the last four weeks or so," Schmid said. "We really have to give him a little more time to say he's 90-minutes fit again, but I think he can certainly come in and impact the game for certain minutes for sure."

Getting Martins back -- as well as Clint Dempsey, who's been training in full all week -- would be a boon to the Sounders. The Sounders have scored just two goals and been shut out three times in the four games he's missed.