Vancouver Whitecaps could soon be buoyed by the return of injured defender Jay DeMerit.
The 33-year old centre-back has been sidelined with an Achilles problem since the opening day of the 2013 campaign but is back in training and gunning for a comeback before the end of the regular season.
"The Achilles is as strong as ever," DeMerit said. "That's definitely not the issue.
"During the injury process, you lose a bit of calf muscle, you lose a bit of reactionary speed. I think that's the final hurdle now.
"It's just reacting to plays - balls up in the air, straight down into a sprint and turn, trying to close somebody down - those kind of things where you need that extra five percent is that final hurdle and I need to get that back right now."
And DeMerit, the former Watford captain, is determined to get back to his best despite the injury happening quite late in his career.
"When you're at this age and you get bad injuries, that's always the talk. But as an individual, I always had the uphill battle. I've always had people counting me out.
"I've built a career on that and there's no reason that that's going to change."
