FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England head coach Jay Heaps could name Benny Feilhaber and Clyde Simms in his squad for Sunday's match at Philadelphia (7 pm ET, NBCSN, LIVE CHAT on MLSsoccer.com) after both midfielders made strides to overcome injuries this week.
Feilhaber (above) sustained a right ankle sprain in Saturday's scoreless draw at Sporting Kansas City, but he trained with his teammates in full on Friday morning. The display – and Feilhaber's grittiness to gut through the Sporting match after initially picking up the knock – prompted optimism from Heaps about the midfielder's status for the visit to PPL Park.
“Benny, this week, he's a key cog to us and an important player,” Heaps told MLSsoccer.com after the session concluded. “We have to make sure he's healthy.”
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Similar measures of preventative maintenance kept Simms from featuring at Livestrong Sporting Park. The concerns about Simms' right calf injury have dissipated over the course of this week and the veteran midfielder said he is prepared to take the field on Sunday.
“[I feel] good, better, a lot better,” Simms said. “I had some problems with my calf. I think it was smart to stay out of the Kansas City game with the way it was feeling. I'm feeling a lot better. No problems today, so I'm looking forward to getting on the field.”
While Feilhaber and Simms will almost certainly feature in the travel party for tomorrow's excursion to Philadelphia, José Moreno will not join them. The Colombian striker was excused from training for personal reasons and will not travel with the team to Philadelphia, according to Revolution general manager Michael Burns.
Moreno did not play in either of the Revolution's two road matches last week despite making the trip and did not make the squad for the draw against Sporting Kansas City.
