Spector trains, avoids hurting knee again

Orlando City defender

trained Tuesday and did not suffer the injury setback many feared after he had to leave the Lions’ 3-3 draw with Atlanta early Saturday.

The Lions’ defensive leader returned to the lineup in the Atlanta United match, but he could play only 59 minutes.

Spector was evaluated and it was determined he didn’t re-injured his knee, an Orlando City spokesman said.

The defender had just recovered from spraining his lateral collateral ligament, which runs along the outside of the knee, at the beginning of August. His recovery timeline originally was three weeks, but it took five for him to get back into the starting lineup.

Spector made an immediate impact in the lineup, delivering crucial tackles, but he asked to be replaced during the second half. Orlando City coach

suggested that the knee may have stiffened during the halftime break. to clinch a playoff berth during its final two regular-season matches, with a point against Portland or North Carolina likely pushing the Pride into the postseason.

“I feel great,” Edmonds said after training Tuesday. “I’m ready to play, but we’ll see what ends up happening.”

The Pride are expecting to get five players back for training Thursday after they competed in national team friendlies Tuesday.

represented Brazil during the team’s match in Australian against the Matildas. The Australian side featured

and

The Matildas won both friendlies against Brazil.

and are expected back after representing the U.S. women’s national team against New Zealand.

Sermanni hopes all the players will be able to compete for a full 90 minutes against Portland.

“We just have to wait to make sure they don’t, one, have any injury issues, and two, they don’t run into any travel delays,” he said. “You worry about the ones all the way in Australia getting here without any problems.”