FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Carles Gil continues to progress from the foot injury that sidelined him for the first two games of the New England Revolution’s season, and last year’s MLS Newcomer of the Year spoke with the media after he was a full participant in Tuesday morning’s training session.
“I feel good. This is only the third practice that I’ve had with the team, but I feel good coming off the injury,” Gil said via interpreter. “We’ll take it day by day, little by little, and see how everything goes when the game gets closer.”
The game Gil’s referencing is Sunday’s meeting with the Portland Timbers at Gillette Stadium (1:30 p.m., TICKETS), and head coach Bruce Arena agreed that “it’s too early” to determine whether the Revolution’s playmaker will be available to make his 2020 debut.
A decision on Gil’s availability will be made closer to Sunday, but regardless of his status this weekend, Arena is excited to have his club captain back on the training ground and so close to a return.
“He was certainly a key player with our team last year, and we’ve missed not having him,” Arena said. “We missed him in preseason and up until today, so it’s great to have him back and hopefully he can keep making progress.”
Gil spent almost the entirety of preseason recovering from the injury, so the 27-year-old will need time to build to full match fitness, saying that his progress in that area “all depends on how I feel at training.” He hopes, he said, to be nearing top shape in about a week.
Just getting back into full training has been a massive relief for Gil, who was New England’s ironman last season, starting all 35 games and playing all but eight minutes the entire year.
“I never like being away from the team. I never like being injured,” he said. “It’s kind of a sour taste, but hopefully I’ll be back at 100 percent as soon as possible.
“I feel excited. I know this is a big year for us. It was tough that basically from the first week of the season, I couldn’t train with the guys, but I’m excited to get out there and see what happens.”
