[AMERICANS ABROAD] Don't expect to see Charlie Davies playing for Sochaux in France's Ligue 1 any time soon. Interviewed on France radio on Thursday night, Sochaux coach Francis Gillot said it won't be before January that he'll be able to count on him. In the opinion of Sochaux's fitness trainer, Cedric Blomme, it's even a struggle for Davies to play on Sochaux's "B" team in the CFA, the fourth level of France soccer.

On "Coach Courbis," the RMC talk show hosted by former French coach Rolland Courbis, Gillot said, "Charlie is still very far from achieving his level. I can't yet count on him. We'll have to wait until January."

Seriously injured almost a year ago in a car crash outside Washington, D.C., Davies has been playing for Sochaux's "B" team.

Sébastien Daucourt of L'Est Républicain recently wrote of Davies in his last home game with the Sochaux reserves at the stade Rene Blum that it was "painful to watch" the American:

"In an hour on the field, his misery lingered. He touched just a few meager balls with which he hardly did anything. He even began to grouse after his teammates before heading directly to the locker room, his head low, after his substitution."

In his next game at Louhans Cuiseaux, Davies picked up a red card, was suspended and hasn't played for the reserves in the CFA since.

Says Blomme, "He is still far what you can hope for, even in the CFA."

According to Blomme, one theory is that the amount of time it takes to rehabilitate is equal to the time that one was disabled, and he hopes Davies will make "significant" improvement between now and the end of the year.