CARSON, Calif. – David Beckham looks increasingly likely to play and Landon Donovan is nearing full strength, but the injury bug could deprive the LA Galaxy of another first-choice attacker for Sunday's game at Colorado (7 pm ET, Galavision).
Swedish midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson, who has started LA's last two league matches after joining the club earlier this month, is listed as questionable with a strained left calf. He missed training the last two days.
Beckham, who returned to practice this week after three weeks off with a sprained ankle, also is officially questionable, but he said following Friday's session at the Home Depot Center that he expects to be ready.
“[Feeling] pretty good,” he said. “Getting there. Obviously, it's difficult being out a few weeks, then coming back. But I've had a good week of training and should be all right for this weekend.”
What do you think of MLSsoccer.com? Let us know what you think!
Head coach Bruce Arena, who rarely says much of anything about injuries, said he'd “see how [Beckham] feels tomorrow before we finalize anything. [He's] getting better. He's got a way to go. You know, he's been off a while, so it's going to take him a little bit of time.”
Beckham is anxious to get back onto the field – “you want to get back into it and get that fitness before the playoffs start” – and thinks he possibly could go 90 minutes, even in Denver's mile-high elevation.
“We'll have to wait and see,” he said. “Obviously, you have to build that up again, but we'll judge that on how I feel during the game and what Bruce thinks and what the physio thinks. Hopefully, I could play 90, but you know it's the altitude and the first game back after three-and-a-half weeks. I hope I can do it.”
Donovan, who has played in the Galaxy's last three competitive games (going the full 90 last weekend against Toronto FC) after a month off with a hamstring strain, says he's “getting there,” too, but Arena notes “it'll take him a little bit of time” to find his best form.
Wilhelmsson “got banged up a little bit,” as Donovan described it, and looks unlikely to travel to Colorado. Arena wouldn't say so – he merely said the winger had a “light muscle strain” on a “lower extremity;” the injury was subsequently listed on the club's injury report.
“He'll be fine,” Arena said. But as for his availability vs. the Rapids, “We don't know yet.”
