CARSON, Calif. – Todd Dunivant isn't ready to return to training yet, but he's targeting the Galaxy's Oct. 21 clash at San Jose for his return to action after hip and oblique injuries.
Dunivant added “more dynamic stuff” to his regimen of gym work and running on the sidelines during Galaxy training sessions, and the 2012 MLS Best XI left back is confident he'll be ready when Major League Soccer's World Cup qualifying break ends next week.
“It's going to be day-to-day,” Dunivant said following Wednesday's practice at the Home Depot Center. “Today was the first day or really pushing any sort of dynamic stuff, and it went fairly well. I can tell I don't have the full range yet, but it will be ready soon. And we'll try again tomorrow, see how that goes, see how it responds to today – because it was quite a big load on it today.”
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Dunivant said he suffered a hip pointer in the Sept. 30 draw at Colorado, and he strained an oblique muscle last week while continuing to train. It forced him to miss last weekend's loss at home to Real Salt Lake.
“I had a huge welt on the side of my hip at the end of the game, and I didn't know where it came from,” Dunivant said. “I remember it being sore, but sometimes that happens. Your adrenaline is going, and you don't realize [you've gotten hurt].”
He trained on it Wednesday last week with no problems, then last Thursday in the “first real soccer movement, the oblique went, and it was because it was so tight and there was a lot of swelling and bleeding in there that, I guess, pulled the muscle and kind of threw everything off balance.”
It didn't feel good either.
“It felt like someone was stabbing me in the gut,” he said. “It really wasn't good.”
The Galaxy also wnt against RSL without center back A.J. DeLaGarza, who is sidelined with a sprained knee, and captain Landon Donovan suffered a knee injury late in the game that could force him out of action as the Galaxy battles for positioning for the Western Conference playoffs.
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“Not good timing at all,” Dunivant said. “I would have done anything I could to play [against RSL], but there was really no way. It's one of those things you can't really help.”
Since then, he has been doing some “straightforward jogging” and bike work in the gym, but he was running Wednesday, doing “weaves and a little more explosive stuff.”
“I still don't have full range, so it's not there yet, but it's getting there,” he said. “I'm definitely optimistic to be available next week.”
