San Diego head coach Mikey Varas has confirmed that Hirving Lozano will be missing for their weekend trip to Real Salt Lake ahead of travelling.

The Mexico international is one of the expansion club's designated players and has started both of their opening MLS games against LA Galaxy and St. Louis City.

"We will be managing him week to week. It's a minor lower leg injury so he'll be back soon," Varas told the media ahead of the club's third game of the season on Saturday.

"It's not serious. So that's good, but it's impossible to predict exactly how long [he'll be out], so every week we'll be evaluating that."

"In football, each player has his own special qualities and even when you sub a player in and sub a player out, the dynamic of the team will change.

"But our overall style of play, nothing changes. We have conviction for that, but it'll look a little bit different with a different front three."

But when asked who would fill in for Lozano, Varas understandably remained tight-lipped in the press conference.

"We're still making those decisions," he replied, when asked.

San Diego drew 0-0 with St. Louis in the first MLS home game in their history, following a 2-0 victory away to defending MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy in their season-opener. 

Despite failing to win, Varas suggested that he was encouraged by the performance.

"It's early days, and I'm mostly excited about the fact the boys are playing with our style of play and showing tons of conviction and quality," he said.

"I know that it was an exciting game of football. We took 15 shots on goal, we were very vertical, there were a lot of moments when you could hear the reaction of the crowd.

This weekend, they travel to a competitive Real Salt Lake team, which has made the playoffs in the last two years, but Varas thinks they have nothing to fear.

"Nothing changes for us. We focus on our people, our performance, our principles," he said.

"We're going to go there, and we're going to play our game, we're going to be brave on the ball, we're going to press and play our game."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Real Salt Lake – Forster Ajago

Ghanaian forward Ajago scored his first goal for RSL last weekend in his first regular-season home game and could become only the second player in club history to score in their first two home games.

Ajago netted seven league goals in 12 league appearances while on loan at MLS Next Pro team Huntsville City last season.

San Diego – Anders Dreyer

Designated player Dreyer is still San Diego's all-time top goalscorer having netted both goals in their 2-0 victory away to LA Galaxy on opening night.

With Lozano injured, more focus will fall on the Danish forward, who is averaging 2.5 shots per game so far this season.

MATCH PREDICTION: REAL SALT LAKE WIN

Real Salt Lake are unbeaten in six straight regular-season home matches dating back to last season (W4 D2) following a 2-0 win over Seattle on Saturday. RSL has won 11 of their last 16 league matches at America First Field, dating back to last April (D3 L2).

Real Salt Lake also won their first home game of the season last weekend, beating Seattle Sounders 2-0 with a goal in each half.

Following that victory at home last time out, Real Salt Lake have now lost just one of their last eight regular-season matches in MLS.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Real Salt Lake – 50.2%

Draw – 25.2%

San Diego – 24.6%