Omar Gonzalez’s season debut last week gave the LA Galaxy hope, but with the 2011 MLS defender of the Year’s recovery from offseason knee surgery far from complete, his status for Saturday’s match against the Portland Timbers remains in question.
Gonzalez made his season debut with a 45 minute stint in the Galaxy’s defeat to the Philadelphia Union on July 4th, but was on the bench days later during the club’s 2-0 victory against Chicago. After making a return to action just hours after being activated from the disabled list, Gonzalez has preached patience as he looks to make a complete recovery.
“I didn’t feel as good in the Chicago game as I felt in the very first game, I think that I have a lot of scar tissue under the tendon and I think that’s causing the problem and we’re working to get rid of that,” said Gonzalez. “You just don’t want to take a guy who has been out six months and make him go 90 minutes, that’s when things go wrong. When you feel fatigued and don’t really feel in control of your body, that’s when you can take the wrong steps. We’ve been taking those precautions and have been going from there.”
During training on Thursday, Gonzalez admitted that he had picked up “other knocks” since his season debut, but chose not to divulge specifics. Although Gonzalez readily admits that he’s chopping at the bit to regain his regular spot in the back four, he’s taking precaution.
“It’s been tough, for the game against Philly, I felt great. I had no nagging injuries and I felt really confident to play in that game,” said Gonzalez. “But now I’ve got some other problems and it just doesn’t feel right, right now and I’m kind of hitting a little spot where I’m questioning it. But I think that I have to really think about things right now.”
Added knocks are not the only thing weighing on Gonzalez’s mind as the turf playing conditions at both stops of the Galaxy’s Pacific Northwest road swing may cause problems for the defender’s surgically repaired knee.
“I have my skepticism about turf and both [upcoming road] games are on turf and we’re just trying to figure out if that’s the best case for me to play there. It’s still up in the air,” said Gonzalez. “We don’t know, if I’m going to [play] then I have to be really confident and really mentally strong about it, but we just don’t know yet.”
