AMSTERDAM – As he nears the final stages of his second recovery from major injury to his left knee, Molde FK winger Josh Gatt has two big items on his to-do list: get back to his pre-injury best, then help bring the Norwegian champs another title in 2015.
The 23-year-old right winger has not played for the recently-crowned Tippeligaen kings since June of last year, when he tore the anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments in the leg with which makes his trademark cuts to the inside. Gatt looked on the verge of returning to competitive action in May, only to suffer another ACL-related setback in training.
Not much has changed in the youngster's sunny outlook, though. True to character, Gatt sounds content and determined in describing how this comeback will be different than the last.
"The first rehab was harder, because I also had surgery on the LCL," Gatt told MLSsoccer.com by phone from Florida. "And I just think I put too much pressure on myself back then to return as fast as I could.
"Now, I am not in a hurry. I don't want to do this a third time."
There is no set schedule for this return but if he remains on course, expect to see Gatt re-join team training at some point in the preseason and miss no more than a handful of Tippeligaen rounds when the league begins play in April.
"I want to come back strong and hopefully get back to playing around April or so," Gatt said, doing a general estimate. "Everybody, from Molde to the US national team, are giving support to this recovery plan."
With a new thought process in his renewed path back come some new routines, as well. Gatt figures there was too much physical work, too early the last time, but says Tampa Bay-area training center Competitive Edge Sports have sent him down this recovery road with a better balance of routines.
"It's been a completely different recovery," he explained. "This time, nothing has been done to put stress on my knee.
"It's all been done to let it heal, so that I have flexibility around my knee and it can be strong. Now that the ACL is about healed, I can get back to the weights and strengthening the muscles."
As evidenced by a recent team testing trip to a Norwegian specialist, this new system is working wonders.
"He said my results were off the charts for someone out six months," Gatt noted. "Everybody is doing a terrific job making it safe for me to get back as quickly as possible."
When such injuries befall a player that relies on speed and quick changes of direction on consecutive occasions, the natural fear among observers is that he will lose the speed element that made him so exciting to watch in the first place.
When Gatt suffered the second knee injury earlier this year, Molde medical staff chief Lars Håvard Sæbø opined to MLSsoccer.com that the winger would return good as new. Given past history, one can forgive USMNT fans for not wanting to stir such hopes too much – but it's starting to seem that the doc may just have been right.
Not only does Gatt feel set to have his old wheels back to burning rubber, he says there's even a chance he will have gained a step when he is finally back to 100 percent.
"It shouldn't be a problem for me," he says with a calm but clear-headed confidence. "Maybe if I was 35, okay. But I'm only 23 and the good thing is there was no muscle damage this time.
"So I will have all my strength back, will still move my legs at the same speed and with the same amount of power. Heck... my leg muscles might come back stronger than before."
And what of the mental aspect of getting back to his repertoire of terrifying raids into the opposition area and sinister cuts that dizzy defenders, which many players insist is truly the hardest part?
"Everybody has worries, of course," prefaced Gatt. "But that is not really something I ever think about. I will try to do all the same things when I get on the field."
He may at some point, however, consider the fact that his contract expires at the end of the next season. Despite his injury file, Molde have told Gatt's reps that they envision him staying longer.
"They are excited he will be back," said Gatt's mentor, Jon Spencer. "He is in their plans. Hopefully, by Champions League qualifying (late summer 2015) he will be regularly playing. Obviously, it is an important year ahead. For now we just take it one day at a time."
And one day this spring, Gatt will likely get back in the game. This season, he watched mostly from afar as Molde re-claimed the league title and added an NM Cupen repeat without him.
Like everything else, the American has turned these successes into motivational fuel. After all, that's just who he is.
"Seeing them win just makes me hungry so that I can get back on the field and be a part of it," declared Gatt. "I know those parties at the end of the season and I can't wait to get back to bring another one to Molde."
