FRISCO, Texas – David Ferreira has moved heaven and earth to overcome almost two years of injury problems due to a broken ankle, but now the 2010 MLS MVP is dealing with a very different ailment. “El Torito” returned to the training field on Wednesday morning sporting a white protective mask after the midfielder suffered a broken nose in training last Friday.
“It’s really strange, isn’t it?” said head coach Schellas Hyndman. “You don’t know when your injuries are going to come. You don’t know who it’s going to come to and you don’t know what injury. [Wearing the mask] is an adjustment and it’s not easy.”
Ferreira was inadvertently hit by midfielder James Marcelin last week, and had surgery on the injured nose on Saturday morning. He says that while the new mask is annoying, a better fitting one is on its way and the injury won’t slow him down for Dallas’ huge matchup in San Jose this weekend (10:30 pm ET, watch LIVE online).
“I’m not expecting any problems against San Jose this weekend,” Ferreira told MLSsoccer.com through a translator. “I trained for the first time today with the mask. It’s a little bit uncomfortable and I’m not used to it, but I’m expecting to adapt to it fast and the team is requesting a different mask that adapts better to my face. Hopefully that will be ready soon enough.”
Rarely do opposing defenses lose track of the dynamic midfielder, but if Ferreira’s replacement mask is anything like the white one he wore today, even the highest spectator in the last row will be cognizant of the masked marauder running the FC Dallas midfield on Saturday evening.
“It’s funny, he headed the ball today in practice and I thought it must be miserable,” defender Matt Hedges said of Ferreira. “[The mask] is kind of funny-looking, but at the same time it’s necessary. It just looks weird.”
All joking aside, Hyndman knows if there’s one player that won’t be affected by an annoying injury like this one, it’s his talisman Ferreira.
“It’s not something that’s going to bring the best out of him,” Hyndman said. “But what I can say is there’s probably no one on the team that would respond to it better than David.”
