Forward had to adjust his running motion
For Chris Pontius, a lot went into healing his hamstring after he pulled up lame at the end of a long run with the ball at his feet against Chicago on April 17.
Over the last month, he’s been forced to rebuild his running motion from scratch.
“I saw a specialist, and he basically told me everything that was wrong with me,” said Pontius, who returned to practice this week and will be available for D.C. United at Houston on Saturday. “It’s tough to change, and you can’t change everything because sometimes your body is just built like that.”
In fact, the injury itself was the indication of a larger problem for last year’s rookie of the year finalist, something that the 23-year-old got away with growing up and in college but not at his current level.
Pontius first suffered the strain during a U.S. national team camp in January, and determined to play, he pronounced himself ready by the time the Major League Soccer season began in late March. He lasted just the first three and half matches of the year before re-aggravating the problem. It was clear that the symptoms were much deeper — due to flexibility issues throughout his hamstrings, hips and lower back.
“All those being tight puts extra strain on my hamstrings,” said Pontius, who’s been seen over the last two weeks doing endless sprints in an effort to his gait to stop working against him. “If you watch me run, I tend to pull a lot instead of driving, using my quads. [The correction is] that, in my first couple of steps, it’s driving off my quads.”
Pontius is looking into yoga classes to work on the flexibility, too, but first United (1-7-0) will look to him to provide a spark for the worst offense in Major League Soccer in a venue — Robertson Stadium — where D.C. has never won (0-4-1 in all competitions).
“[Pontius] is the type of guy that whether he’s playing up front or out wide, he’s got some pace, and he’s a player that likes to go at people one versus one,” said United assistant coach Kris Kelderman. “I think that’s an area where we could use some help.”
