CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy left back Todd Dunivant tested himself for the first time on Wednesday as he looks to return from a hip pointer injury that prevented him from appearing in last Saturday's match against Real Salt Lake.
According to Dunivant, the injury first surfaced during LA's 1-1 draw against the Colorado Rapids last month as he experienced a large welt after the match. Although the left back admitted to being sore, it was not until the beginning of the Galaxy's training session last Thursday that Dunivant experienced an issue in his oblique muscles that he described as feeling like "someone was stabbing me in the gut." The injury ultimately forced him from action against RSL -- as Bryan Gaul got the nod at left back -- but even though the injury sounds severe, Dunivant was back on the training ground on Wednesday as he looks to return to full fitness ahead of LA's next match against the San Jose Earthquakes on Oct. 21.
Following his first real soccer fitness work out, Dunivant admitted that it is still "day to day" before he engages in full training as he has been limited to predominantly gym work as he works through his injury. After training on Wednesday, head coach Bruce Arena sounded optimistic stating that he believed Dunivant would be on the field very shortly" as he is "moving along fine."
Even though the left back believes that he will not be ready for Friday's Reserve League match, he is optimistic about this recovery.
DUNIVANT: “I’m progressing. It’s only really been about a week now, a week as of tomorrow. It’s still been a pretty short amount of time, but today, I started doing more dynamic stuff. I’ve done straight forward jogging till now, so to do more dynamic stuff like weaves and more explosive stuff. I still don’t have full range so it’s not fully there yet, but it’s getting there so I’m definitely optimistic to be available for next week."
(On how the injury first occurred...)
DUNIVANT: "It was a play in the Colorado game; I had a huge welt on the side of my hip. I didn’t know where it came from, but I remember being sore, but sometimes that happens and your adrenaline is going and you don’t realize it. I was able to train the next day, but with the swelling, it was actually deep enough that it pulled on my oblique and I ended up straining that so it’s all in the same area. Kind of two things to deal with at once, a nice weird injury, but fortunately, we have a bye this week so that gives me a little extra time."
(On his experience during last Thursday's training session...)
"I trained Wednesday and I felt the hip pointer, which obviously was a little sore, but I was able to get through training fine and the first thing on Thursday, the first real soccer movement, the oblique went because it was so tight and there was a lot of swelling and bleeding in there, that pulled that muscle and threw everything of balance. It’s one of those weird freak things, but something that I can deal with."
(On how a schedule to return to full training...)
DUNIVANT: "It’s going to be day to day, today was our first day of really pushing any sort of dynamic stuff and it went fairly well. I could tell that I don’t have the full range yet, but it’ll be ready soon and we’ll try again tomorrow and see how that goes and see how it responds to today because it was quite a bit of a big load on it today so we’ll take it day by day now, and we’ll take it from there. Fortunately, it’s still early in this week and we’ve obviously got all of next week. I want to get back as soon as possible so I can get fit and get back in the rhythm."
