With a weekend off, FC Dallas hopes to use a break from game action to do one thing: recuperate.
For last Sunday's 1-0 loss to Houston Dynamo at Robertson Stadium, the Hoops were missing six players to injury. One of those, striker Roberto Mina, is out for the season but the other five FCD players continue to work their way back.
Forward Kenny Cooper, who was leading FCD with four goals when he suffered a broken leg in a June 9 win against the L.A. Galaxy, has started kicking a ball on the side with the team's training staff but is still a few weeks from returning.
"I would say he (Cooper) is two to three weeks out from full training," FCD coach Steve Morrow said. "Once we get him into full training, after about a week or so, we'll be looking to get him on the roster again."
The other major injury is to midfielder Juan Toja, who had four goals before suffering a high ankle sprain in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal on August 7. Toja had to leave midway through that match and has missed FCD's last two league matches.
"We'll just have to see how he goes in the next week or so," Morrow said about Toja. "It was quite a bad ankle sprain. He will take it easy this week and we'll try to get him jogging and see how he goes in the latter part of this week. At the moment, I think it's very unpredictable."
In the back, FCD got some good news on Sunday when Alex Yi returned from a hamstring injury and logged 45 minutes of time with the Hoops reserves. The third-year back will be available for selection for FCD's next game, against D.C. United on Sept. 1.
On Sunday, Morrow held out center back Adrian Serioux, who had suffered a hamstring injury in a 3-2 win against Columbus the previous Saturday. Serioux was back at training this week and Morrow admits he kept the Canadian international out of the Dynamo match merely as a precaution.
"Because we don't have a game this weekend, we want to make sure we're testing him as much as we possibly can with the hamstring," Morrow said. "We want him to be at 100 percent full sprint again before we put him back in. We didn't want to take any risks for him. I think he should be ready for D.C."
The last player in sickbay is goalkeeper Dario Sala, who has been bothered by a sprained right MCL off and on for the last month. Second-year 'keeper Ray Burse has filled in well in Sala's absence but Morrow looks to get Sala back in the near future.
"Dario worked out a bit harder this [week] and is feeling a little bit better," Morrow said. "We have two weeks to make sure he's right."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
