CARSON, Calif. — Robbie Keane and Todd Dunivant returned to LA Galaxy training on Thursday, their first full sessions in nearly three weeks, and both expect to be available to the team on the its upcoming three-game trek.
Dunivant, the Galaxy's first-choice left back, has recovered from a high leg strain and hopes he can feature in Saturday afternoon's game at Vancouver (7 pm ET, watch on MLS Live). Keane (above), coming off a sprained left ankle, is targeting Wednesday night's match at Philadelphia for his return. LA also play on Sunday, May 19, at New York.
“Feel good,” said Keane, LA's captain. “I wasn't scheduled for [a return to training] today, it was tomorrow, but I felt good, so I wanted to carry on.”
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Both were initially hurt in last month's CONCACAF Champions League semifinal series against Monterrey and sat out the April 13 loss at FC Dallas. They returned for a victory over Sporting Kansas City a week later, tweaked their injuries, and missed two games, a victory two weeks ago at Real Salt Lake and last weekend's loss to Houston.
“It was already sprained in that game [against Kansas City],” Keane said. “Obviously, the damage was already done, but I managed to play. Obviously, the damage got worse. One of those things, but I'm back now. Probably Saturday is not realistic, so Wednesday. ... Probably won't be traveling [to Vancouver].”
Dunivant said he felt twinges in his leg early against Kansas City, “and I again pushed it the rest of the game and knew after that I was going to need a little time.”
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He said he'd see how his body reacts to his first training session back.
“We'll see how it goes. You always want to [play],” he said. “So I'm going to do everything I can to be available, and from there we'll make that decision, and Bruce [Arena] will be the ultimate decider.”
Arena said he expects both to be available during the trip.
“Watching these players, they look like they're heading back into full fitness,” he said. “So there's no reason to believe they're not going to be a choice for one of these games.”
Scott French covers the LA Galaxy for MLSsoccer.com.
