Will St. Louis City SC take Ryan Meara in the expansion draft? (Photo courtesy of MLS)

The Red Bulls announced Thursday they have protected 12 players ahead of Friday’s MLS expansion draft for St. Louis City SC.

Per MLS expansion draft rules, each club is allowed to protect up to 12 players. The team also will have five additional players from the current roster automatically protected.

The Red Bulls will protect goalkeeper Carlos Coronel, defenders Sean Nealis and Andrés Reyes, midfielders Frankie Amaya, Wiki Carmona, Cristian Cásseres, Jr., Cameron Harper, Lewis Morgan, Luquinhas, and Dru Yearwood, and forwards Tom Barlow and Elias Manoel.

Five Homegrowns who are under the age of 25, defender John Tolkin, midfielders Daniel Edelman, Bento Estrela and Omir Fernandez, along with forward Serge Ngoma are automatically protected.

Red Bulls players available for selection

Goalkeepers: AJ Marcucci, Ryan Meara

Defenders: Dylan Nealis, Matt Nocita, Hassan Ndam

Midfielders: Steven Sserwadda

Forwards: Patryk Klimala, Jake LaCava

Four players who were with the Red Bulls this past season Jesús Castellano, Caden Clark, Aaron Long and Kyle Duncan are also available for selection in Friday’s expansion draft.

Two players that were declined options this season, Zach Ryan and Omar Sowe are automatically protected.

The expansion draft will take place tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, and will be streamed live on MLSsoccer.com, MLS App, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.