When Paulo Nagamura joined Chivas USA in May, he was happy to return to southern California. Now, the Brazilian longs for another return.
Nagamura sprained his knee during the club's 1-1 tie at New England on July 7, an injury he is hoping to overcome by Chivas' next league match, on Aug. 18 at Toronto.
"I hope to be back on the field as soon as possible," Nagamura said. "I'm giving it time to heal to come back."
Time is in abundance right now for Chivas. The club last played a league game on July 29 and Nagamura need not rush himself back for a match and risk damaging the injury even further.
Nagamura's injury forced him to miss three regular-season games but Chivas went 2-1 in those matches. In his first two absences, Chivas beat Columbus 2-1 on July 14 and the Red Bulls 2-0 on July 26.
"I'm lucky that I have this injury in this middle of the season break and get me fit for the second half of the season," Nagamura said.
But the club had one particularly difficult defeat with Nagamura unavailable. The club fell to the Seattle Sounders 3-1 on July 18 in a U.S. Open Cup third-round match and was eliminated from the tournament.
Still, though the timing of the injury was relatively fortuitous, Nagamura said that one game missed due to injury was too many.
"I get disappointed because I don't want to be out any games," he said. "I want to play every game and every minute but that's how it is and we have to take time off to heal and get back as soon as possible."
Since joining Chivas from Toronto in a trade on May 4, Nagamura had been an instant contributor. Without having many training sessions under his belt, Nagamura nevertheless was thrown into the fire and responded. He went the distance in his first match, a 2-1 loss to D.C. United on May 6, and played another 90 minutes at Columbus on July 12.
In all, he's played nine matches and has been a dependable performer in the center of the field. He's also accounted for one of Chivas' two game-winning goals on the road as he bagged his first career tally in a July 9 win at Chicago.
Now, though, Nagamura is focused on simply returning to action. His injury kept him from training with the club, though he was often doing rehab work on the side while the full team trained. Last week, he ran at training and worked with the ball for the first time since July 7. He said he hoped the injury would continue to recover soon.
"Let's see how I feel this week and we will all know (how the injury responds) at the beginning of the game week," Nagamura said.
Taken by Toronto in last year's expansion draft, Nagamura started four games for Toronto FC, including a season-opening 2-0 loss to Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center. Though the club has changed considerably since Nagamura departed, he longs to play against his former club.
"I'm looking forward in playing against Toronto and hopefully I get fit by then," Nagamura said. "Playing against Toronto the first time is going to be fun."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
