Goalkeeper Stefan Frei hopes to return to full training with the Seattle Sounders this week.
Frei suffered a right ankle sprain last month while with the U.S. national team, and the injury forced him to leave Bruce Arena's training camp early.
Seattle general manager Garth Lagerwey had said the Sounders would not rush back Frei if he was not ready to start the season opener on March 4, but his recovery appears on track to return quickly.
"It's good. I've had two full keeper sessions completed," Frei said at an event hosted by Sounder at Heart. "We're slowly getting into uncontrolled situations where you maybe step a little bit wrong and you realize your ankle is fine and learning to trust your body again. I'm expecting to join the team in full in the next couple days."
Frei was included at U.S. camp though he is still in the process of completing his eligibility requirements, meaning he was unlikely to ever feature in the recent friendlies against Serbia and Jamaica.
And though he was disappointed to leave camp, Frei said he tried to look for a silver lining.
"I'm always a guy who looks at things in a positive way," he said. "As soon as it happened, I was bummed about the whole national team thing, but I looked at it as a chance to give my body time to heal, my shoulder and everything else. Get strong, work on other things in my game.
"I have good people around me, so I just listen to them."
