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The curse of the St. Louis City SC center back continues.

After missing two games with a tight back, Tim Parker was back on the practice field Tuesday, though wearing a yellow jersey as a neutral in practice. (“Goes nicely with his hair color,� coach Bradley Carnell said.) But absent from the field was Joakim Nilsson, who Carnell said will miss at least this week and probably next with a broken rib suffered Saturday in a 2-2 tie against D.C. United.

“Nilsson’s had something,� Carnell said after practice Tuesday, “and it aggravated for the last three or four days prior to that, and then playing against (D.C. United’s Christian) Benteke, he’s a different opponent or a different striker than we usually face. So he got pretty banged up, but credit to him. I thought we did a great job on Benteke. We got 80% first contact on all set pieces, so it was really good.

“He’s a competitor. He’s feisty. He loves a good challenge. And you can see he fights through a lot of things. So yeah, credit to him, but yeah, he’s around us. He’s with us. We feel this might be a short-term loss in that instance, a couple of weeks maybe. And then he’ll be back with us.�

Nilsson and Parker, the team’s preferred pair in the middle of its back line, have started just three games together so far this season, and in one of those, Parker came out after 35 minutes when he felt a leg muscle tightening. Parker has gone 90 minutes in just three of the team’s seven games over all competitions. The team’s other two center backs, Josh Yaro and Kyle Hiebert, have each missed three games. Even Michael Wentzel, the top center back for City2, has missed a game to injury.

Carnell said Parker will need to progress through his return-to-play program but was hopeful he’d be available this weekend.

Another thing the center backs have done is score. Parker, Nilsson, Yaro and Hiebert have all scored this season in some competition: Parker in the Champions Cup, Nilsson and Yaro in MLS play, and Hiebert forced an own goal in MLS play and scored in MLS Next Pro on Sunday.

Eduard Lowen trained separately from the team Tuesday, and while he’s making progress, Carnell said this week might be a bit early for him to return to action.

Refs are back

PRO, the group that runs officiating for Major League Soccer, and the PSRA, the union that represents MLS referees and assistant referees, reached an agreement late Monday night that will end the league’s lockout of officials. The officials will be back at work this weekend, which will also mean the implementation of some new rules, including one tested in MLS Next Pro where a player who is on the ground more than 15 seconds and is tended to by trainers will have to leave the field for two minutes before returning.

“Those are some things we will have to address and talk about,� Carnell said. “It might save us 10 minutes on a game like we just had.�

There were 15 minutes of stoppage time in the second half Saturday as D.C. United had multiple players hit the ground and stay there for a while.

Blom’s back

Njabulo Blom returned to action Saturday for his first game in almost a month, entering as a substitute in the 80th minute. He ended up getting 25 minutes in a game that saw 15 minutes of extra time. Blom last played Feb. 24 and then hurt his knee in practice.

“‘Jabs’ has a certain orientation,� Carnell said, “so we would have liked to have got him a few more minutes. Just the rhythm and the progression of the game, we just thought that was the right moment to bring him in, and I thought he looked pretty good. We’ll just keep on pushing him and keep on demanding more in training and getting him up to more speed, but I’m glad we’re getting healthy bodies over here.

“The impact of the Champions Cup leaves its marks, and you can see around the league what it does. We are getting over the hump now and getting guys slowly coming back and the more players that we have healthy, fit, strong in the roster, the more competition, the internal competition drives the external competition, and that’s what we need from all the players.�

Just trying to help

Hiebert is one exam shy of completing the academic side of becoming a CPA (he still needs to amass a substantial number of working hours to complete the experiential side), so while he’s not doing anybody’s taxes but his own this year, he’s still fielding questions from teammates.

“Guys will ask for advice on specific things,� he said. “Business or writing off their vehicle, whether to take the IRS mileage rate or go with the maker’s depreciation. So just fun locker room chat.�

Told it sounds like something out of “The Shawshank Redemption,� where convicted banker Andy Dufresne does the taxes for all the prison guards, Hiebert smiled.

“I feel like Andy,� he said. “Except this is the opposite of prison.�