Juan Agudelo hasn’t played a game since having knee surgery in March, and the Red Bulls’ striker admits it took that long, arduous rehab to remind him just how much he loves the game. He finally gets a chance to play that game again, pronounced fit for duty in Saturday’s game at the Los Angeles Galaxy.
“(I’m) real excited. You never want to be injured. It’s boring. Coming back, you have a lot of energy. You remember how much you love the sport,’’ said Agudelo. “There isn’t a better week to come back than a game like this.’’
After having surgery for a torn left meniscus – an injury he says actually started to build back in November – Agudelo has played just one MLS game so far this season. But he returned to full practice today, and despite being listed as questionable, he came through unscathed – and further inspired.
“I felt really good, no problems with the knee at all. Just finally opening up and getting some sprints in felt good,’’ said Agudelo. “I actually felt better than before, having no injuries and nothing to worry about. The desire is there because I’ve been out for so long, and I just want to play.’’
Agudelo will definitely make the trip with the team to Los Angeles, but it doesn’t appear he’s ready for starting duty just yet. When asked how long he felt Agudelo could play, head coach Hans Backe responded “I would guess 20, 25 minutes.’’
He suffered the actual meniscus tear while with the U.S. Under-23 National Team in March for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, but admits he started feeling the original discomfort back in November while training with Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart, and it simply deteriorated from there.
“I started feeling it November. It’s a common injury; your knee gives out and tells you. That’s when I was playing against Cuba. The surgery was necessary in order to totally get it out of my system. Now that it is, I’ve never felt better,’’ said Agudelo. “It got sore after a lot of training and I couldn’t bend it that much.
“It was weird how everybody was dropping like flies. But we have a good training staff and doctors. We were winning games with players that have stepped up. We got the last shutout with three missing starting defenders; that’s huge. It points out there are a lot of guys that can play.’’
Right back Jan Gunnar Solli will return Saturday (8 p.m., ESPN) and left back Toy Miller will practice Monday and is expected to be ready to play next Wednesday against visiting Houston. Center back Wilman Conde could return to practice by the end of next week, potentially setting up a return at Montreal.
“Roy will definitely train on Monday, so he will be available for the Wednesday game. Wilman, he’s doing very well so it looks like the end of next week he can probably join the team in our sessions,’’ said Backe, not as optimistic on Teemu Tainio. “Teemu, this is his first or second day out on the field, so we talked definitely with that kind of knee injury two or three more weeks, a total of six.’’