Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
Back home in Houston, Stuart Holden has been rehabbing from his third serious knee injury in the last three years.
The American international was injured during the 2013 Gold Cup final in late July, keeping him out of Bolton’s early-season plans in the English Championship. According to manager Dougie Freedman though, Holden’s rehabilitation is on-schedule and he could be back in training early next year.
“I’m in contact with Stuart and he’s doing well,” Freedman told the Bolton News in England. “We do know he is set to come back over here in the near future. The plan then is for over the Christmas period and into January he’ll head back over to the States to make sure the guys who are doing his rehab are fully up to speed.
“Then when he’s at a good level hopefully we can look at reintroducing him to training into the early part of the year.”
Holden is currently recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered in the early minutes of the U.S. Men’s National Team’s 1-0 victory over Panama in the Gold Cup final. It’s the latest in a string of unfortunate injuries that has kept the former Houston Dynamo star off the field and in the gym and training centers.
The 28-year-old made a return from injury last January for Bolton after missing all but one League Cup game since March of 2011. He spent a month on loan with Sheffield Wednesday and spent a majority of the summer with the USMNT, making one appearance off the bench in World Cup qualifiers and four starts in five games for the USA in the Gold Cup.
“On the phone he sounds in good spirits, but that’s the kind of guy he is,” Freedman said. “When he comes back he’s going to spend a month or so with us so that we can make sure the rehabilitation is being done in the right way. We obviously need to make sure his comeback isn’t rushed and that everything is okay.”
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What do you think of this report? Glad to hear Holden is on the comeback trail? Do you see him returning to the Bolton squad by February or March? Do you believe he has a chance to make the World Cup squad?
Share your thoughts below.