What We're Reading
Stuart Holden Recovery: 'A Long Way to Go'
- SI.com, Wednesday, December 18, 2013 10:47 AM
Five months after suffering the third major knee injury of his career, Stuart Holden is once again on the comeback trail. But don’t expect the U.S. international to be suiting up for his club Bolton Wanderers anytime soon. In an interview with BWFC.com, coach Dougie Freedman talked about Holden’s progress, revealing that the former Houston Dynamo midfielder is still around two months away from returning to training with the Bolton squad.
“If we’re being honest, he’s still got a long way to go,” Freedman said. “The plan is pretty straightforward. Stuart is back over here to spend a few weeks with our medical guys. We’ll see where he is, and then he’ll head back to the U.S. to continue his rehabilitation. The main reason for that is because he’s already started his rehab work over there. The weather is also better for him to work in. Once he has made significant progress on that front, probably about six to eight weeks, he’ll then come back to us to step up the work on the football side of things.”
Holden’s national team comeback was one of the stories for USA fans in the first half of 2013. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann had added the former Clemson Tiger to his Concacaf Gold Cup squad after a two-and-a-half year hiatus, which had been brought on by two long-term knee injuries. But then, lightning struck again, for the third time, as Holden tore his right ACL in the opening stages of the Gold Cup final against Panama on July 29, two days before his 28th birthday.
