For Edu, ‘baby steps’ a cause for joy in recovery process
CHESTER » It was 50 weeks ago now, on a similarly sultry Friday morning, that the figure of Maurice Edu was reintroduced to the training fields in the shadow of Talen Energy Stadium.
The year since that return has featured more disappointment, blighted by a second leg break mere hours from Edu’s return to MLS play with the Union after three appearances with Bethlehem Steel and entailed much, much more agonizing waiting.
Friday marked Edu’s second full training session, and while the midfielder expressed a hefty dose of caution that this week’s development doesn’t mean his return to game action will occur any time soon, he as optimistic as two interminable years on the sidelines will allow.
“It feels good to be outside,” Edu said. “Still a ways to go, but baby steps. Hopefully this is a sign of things changing in the right direction now. I’ve had a lot of bad luck, so hopefully this is the end of that and things start to turn a little bit now.”
Edu’s injury odyssey tracks to August 2015. He picked up a groin injury in the first week of August and missed 10 of the last 11 MLS games, though he gutted out 120 minutes in the U.S. Open Cup final. His last MLS game was Sept. 20, 2015.
The groin injury transmuted to sports hernia surgery in the postseason, followed by a stress fracture in Edu’s tibia diagnosed in the preseason. The initial timeline never came to fruition, but Edu returned to training July 15, 2016 and got back on the field for Steel. He was twice an unused sub for the Union and was in line to start the regularseason finale against the New York Red Bulls, but a freak training-ground mishap the day before led to another fracture and scuttled his chances of returning to the field, setting off another offseason of waiting and wondering.
Edu has spent most days inside the Power Training Complex working with the sports performance staff on strengthening exercises. In recent weeks, he’s spent more time observing the first-team training sessions, and he’s worked in some light ball work on the side. Thursday, the 31-yearold designated player said, was the first time he participated in full-field tactical drills.
But Edu’s return, everyone took pains to point out Friday, isn’t imminent. Neither the player nor manager Jim Curtin placed a timeline on his journey back to game fitness. The oneday-at-a-time mantra holds practical merit on Edu’s process.
“I’d love to say today was good and I’ll be back in a month,” Edu said. “But when you’ve been out for as long as I’ve been, it’s hard to do that. If you’re unrealistic with yourself and start setting timetables like that, what ends up happening is you frustrate yourself and if that deadline comes and passes and you’re not where you want to be or where you think you should be or plan to be, it’s a mind game. It’s a mental battle that you’ve lost.
“You have to just approach it one day at a time and just continue to build every day. If you had a positive day, good. What’s the response the next day? Am I sore, and am I having pain? Or am I in a situation where I can train again? We have to assess it every day like that and keep challenging myself, keep pushing myself, keep inching closer and closer every day and hopefully soon I’ll be where I need to be and where I want to be.”
“That’s the most he’s done in terms of being involved with the group,” Curtin said. “In terms of playing actually meaningful minutes, still not close in that regard. A good step in that he was on the field with the group today, able to pass, to move, to change direction and that kind of thing. We’ll see how his body responds. I think that was maybe the biggest step forward in my eyes to see visually, him change direction and be on the ball.”
Edu has accrued a certain amount of wisdom through this injury ordeal, and he’s now covering the same ground as last year, albeit with a larger weight of time upon him. He’s equipped to relieve that psychological pressure, and in doing so, he’s able to see the steps on the pathway back to the field that he cleared for himself last year.
“I’ve been there before, so from that standpoint, I’m better prepared mentally for it,” Edu said. “I think in some ways, my body has a better understanding of the different things that I’m experiencing from a pain threshold or from a functional (standpoint) to how I move and things like that. I’m a little bit more cognizant of these things as compared to last year.
“Last year, I was just so eager, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if I had a training and I was really sore the next day, I didn’t know if that was what I should expect or if it was something that was to cause alarm. I think right now I’m in a better frame of mind in terms of, I’ve been through this before to a certain extent and I just think I’m better prepared mentally.”
At the moment, that’s enough for the midfielder, who is in the last year of his Union contract. The task of taking the final steps toward the recovery summit is a question for another day.