The Galaxy will have two practice sessions to close out the week, and that may or may not be enough time for coach Bruce Arena to decide on some of the injured players’ fates.
The defending Western Conference champs have been carrying several injuries at the start of the season but some of those players may appear against Houston on Saturday.
“It’s possible," Arena said. "We’ll see. “We have [time] before we have to make those decisions.”
At Tuesday’s training session, the Galaxy played an 11-on-11 scrimmage. Injured players such as Clint Mathis, Jovan Kirovski, Alan Gordon and Bryan Jordan participated without many visible setbacks. None of that quartet has dressed for any of the Galaxy’s games this season.
Still, participating in a scrimmage is one thing. Playing in a regular-season match is something else.
“I’m getting there,” Mathis said. “Obviously I’m way behind on fitness compared to these guys. I’m feeling good. It got to the point where I’ve had some good days and bad days but I’m starting to get pretty good feeling.”
For Mathis, the desire to play is always there and having had to deal with injury has been difficult.
“I would like to play as soon as possible, but at the same time, I want to be smart,” he said. “Right now it’s just up in the air. We’re going to see how I feel going into this week and go from there and take it game by game.”
Eddie Lewis also hurt himself in the season opener against New England and didn't dress for last week's match against Chivas USA.
Another player who likely won’t be back soon, however, is Gregg Berhalter. The Galaxy’s rock-solid central defender from 2009 is slowly recovering from a knee injury. While the team’s scrimmage was going on, Berhalter did some light running on the side and left the training session before the practice was over.
Berhalter said he was unsure of when he’d suit up.
“That I don't know," he said. "We're working with the medical staff, and hopefully I can get back soon. But we don't know the exact timeframe. I'm running ... that's the first step.”
