Charlie Davies will not return to the field again this season in Ligue 1, FC Sochaux president Alexandre Lacombe has told Est Republicain, which is a significant setback for the American forward, who had intended on returning from his terrible car accident in Washington last fall in time to play a few matches, with the ultimate goal to keep his place on the U.S. national team World Cup roster. Now it looks like he would enter the U.S. training camp next month, if he’s invited, without having played a single match since last October. That’s hardly proof of any kind of form that would be enough to earn him a place in U.S. head coach Bob Bradley‘s 23-man traveling team.
While the public face on Davies’ recovery has always been positive, the reality has been more difficult to accept. When I wrote this story about the U.S. team’s problems at forward in March, i got some grief for not giving Davies enough of a chance. But miracles in soccer are difficult to conjure. Think back just to David Beckham‘s debacle of a first appearance for the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007. Davies’s injuries were far more serious.
Lacombe said while Davies is running and kicking the ball, there is a risk to his morale if he doesn’t make World Cup because that has been his main source of motivation. But it’s too early to put him back on the field.
Even though I’m also hearing more directly that Davies is making fantastic progress, it would be really surprising not to hear Bradley eventually say the same as Lacombe.
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