TUKWILA, Wash. — U.S. Soccer sent home Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei from January camp on Jan. 14 after spraining his right ankle, and the injury is still weeks away from healing.
Sounders General Manager and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey said on Tuesday that Frei was “a ways away” from a full recovery, but that he would travel with the team on its preseason trips to Tucson, Ariz., and Charleston, S.C. Frei is healthy enough at least, Lagerwey noted, to be on the field and not resigned to the training room.
Frei and the U.S. were training on turf in Los Angeles because it had been raining and their grass field was not playable. Frei went down quickly to his right in a 1-v-1 situation and his leg got caught on the turf underneath him, folding over his ankle and injuring his ligament.
“I’m very happy it’s not serious,” Frei said. “I’ve always been a glass-half-full kind of person. It’s a typical turf injury that could have been very, very nasty.”
Backup goalkeeper Tyler Miller will be the Sounders’ No. 1 In the interim while Frei, who is still the team’s starter, recovers. Lagerwey and the technical staff are very confident in Miller and expect him to step in and perform at a high level immediately should he need to.
Lagerwey is not certain whether Frei will be ready by for the team’s regular-season opener on March 4 against the Houston Dynamo, but Lagerwey does not have any issue keeping Frei out as long as he needs to make a full recovery.
“The question is: Should [Frei return for the opener]?” Lagerwey said. “What we have to be mindful of is we just played a nearly 11-month season, and for some of these veteran guys who played a lot of games, to some degree there is no reason to rush them back.
“What we want is for them to be healthy and stay in the lineup once they get back in the lineup,” he continued. “We’re going to be a little bit cautious with these types of things.”
