Sounders designated player Freddie Ljungberg says his onset of migraines at the All-Star game last week was brought on by red wine used in a sauce at the team hotel.

"I asked, 'Isn’t there red wine?', and they said, 'No, no, no, no.' I check afterward, and yeah, there is red wine in that," he said after training today. "So when I get it, I can’t do much about it if I get cheese or red wine – that’s what I’m allergic to."

Ljungberg started feeling the affects in the final minutes of the game, and said he told his coaches, but that All-Star coaching staff -- led by Houston's Dominic Kinnear -- apparently didn't fully understand. So, while Ljungberg was able to skip his turn on the first PK, he was sent out to take a shot in the sixth frame. He tried what he considered a safe little lob, but Everton's Tim Howard slapped it away to win the game for the English side.

"That’s why I didn’t take the first one: I said I felt dizzy and I can’t see," Ljungberg said today. "I think unfortunately because it’s not my regular coaches they don’t know about my migraines. I tried to read my name on my boots, and I just couldn’t see anything. That why I tried a chip, I thought at least in the middle of the goal I can’t miss that. But I should have definitely not taken it; but it’s difficult when the coaching staff don’t really know how bad it is. They’re like, 'Just hit it.' And I was like, 'I can’t see.' But that’s how it is."

Even without the migraines, Ljungberg wouldn't have been available for the Sounders' return to MLS action Sunday, a 4-0 loss at San Jose, due to a red-card suspension.

And Ljungberg said he wasn't even able to watch what ended as the worst defeat in Sounders' history.

"Luckily, my TV screen said "Unavailable,'" he explained. "My bloody neighbor was running in and out saying,'Oh, they scored again; they scored again.' I heard it wasn’t the best and we didn’t play some good football, we didn’t keep the ball well enough; and that’s very very disappointing because (San Jose is) at the bottom of our division. I think the players are upset, but I wasn’t there so I don’t think it’s right for me to comment too much about it."

Stephen King's hamstring injury is the only Sounder injury serious enough to keep anyone out of tomorrow's game against FC Barcelona, coach Sigi Schmid said at practice today.

“Stephen King probably can’t go in this game. We got to see how (Freddie) Ljungberg recovers from today because today was the first day that he’s done anything," Schmid said. "He said he felt pretty good, so we think he’ll be able to go. Tyrone (Marshall) has a little bit of a hamstring so we’ll see how he came through today. It’s really only Stephen King at this stage.”

We talked a little bit with Ljungberg today, and I'll make another full post on that in a little while. But the impression I got is that he doesn't expect to start, but maybe to come on in the final 20 minutes or so.

More later.