The Philadelphia Union will be without forward CJ Sapong indefinitely after he was arrested early Friday morning and charged with reckless driving and driving under the influence, requiring that he be assessed by MLS’s Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program (SABH), per a club release.

Per the rules of that program, Sapong must be cleared by doctors and a league investigation before playing in any games with the club.

“We were alerted to the situation this morning and have been in contact with the league office, law enforcement and C.J.’s family,” Union technical director Chris Albright said in a team statement. “Moving forward, we will continue to work together with the League in following the appropriate procedures. We will have further comment once more information is available.”

The SABH is a long-held program within MLS, though one that’s seldom invoked. It was used in the case of Edson Buddle in 2005 in Columbus, Shalrie Joseph in New England in 2010, Josh Williams in Columbus in 2011 and Philly-area natives Jeff Parke and Jon Conway in New York in 2009.

Parke, Conway and Williams were suspended for performance-enhancing drugs. In those cases, the penalties were set at 10 games and a 10 percent docking of salary at the announcement of entering the program. Sapong’s appears to be more in line with Joseph’s and Buddle’s given the open-ended nature of the announcement.

Philadelphia Union (4-4-2)
MacMath
Gaddis- Parke-Okugo-Williams
MFarfan-Carroll-Daniel-Cruz
McInerney-Casey
Bench: Konopka, Le Toux, Kleberson, Hoppenot, Lahoud, G.Farfan, Wheeler

Seattle Sounders (4-4-2)
Gspurning
Yedlin-Hurtado-Traore-Gonzalez
Rosales-Evans-Carrasco-Caskey
Johnson-Neagle
Bench: Hahnemann, Scott, Martinez, Ianni, Estrada, Rose, Zavaleta

- Union manager John Hackworth said this week that the time for changes was close; he also said it wouldn’t be this week. He was right on the money, naming an unchanged squad from last week’s loss at New England.

- The big name missing from the starting XI or the bench for Seattle is Obafemi Martins, who scored last week in the win against Colorado. Instead, it’ll be Lamar Neagle pairing Eddie Johnson up front, which could be even more dangerous given their familiarity. (Martins has played just three games since coming over as a DP pick up from Levante in Spain.) Also missing are Shalrie Joseph, Steve Zakuani and Osvaldo Alonso. Those are big missing pieces.

- You may notice three strikers on the Union bench: Sebastien Le Toux, Antoine Hoppenot and Aaron Wheeler, the latter getting his first bench appearance of the year. No defenders again.

- The battle in this game will be in the engine room of the midfield. Mauro Rosales is one of the best playmakers from that deep-lying role in MLS and will test the central tandem of Brian Carroll and Keon Daniel. But without Joseph or Alonso, this is an opportunity for the Union to get an upper hand (making the exclusion of Kleberson even more perplexing).