Torsten Frings is back in Toronto to deal with some personal matters as Toronto FC finish up in Florida at the Walt Disney Pro Soccer Classic.
The 36-year old German midfielder needed to attend to a private issue and was given permission by head coach Ryan Nelsen, who was also absent from training camp, to return to Ontario to sort everything out.
"He's just got a personal situation he wanted to deal with," Toronto assistant Fran O'Leary said. "He had a chat with Ryan. Ryan was happy to [allow him to return to Toronto].
"We're all stuck down here, so anytime there's a personal matter we'll give the players freedom to take care of those things."
O'Leary also had his fingers crossed that the former Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund man would recover from offseason hip surgery in time for the 2013 MLS season opener against Vancouver Whitecaps this weekend.
"We'll see how his rehab goes," he added. "We kind of knew we were going to be in this position before we got here. We'll just continue evaluating. Hopefully, he's ready for when we go to Vancouver."
