BEAVERTON — Will Johnson doesn’t know when he might begin training with his Portland Timbers teammates. In fact, he hasn’t asked his doctors that question.
Oh, he’s eager to return. But instead of dreaming about the day he can again play the game he loves, the Portland Timbers captain is focusing on what he can do each day to get better.
“I’ve had no goals, no timelines. Just listen to the leg, listen to the body,” Johnson said. “I want to use this opportunity that I’ve had to rebuild the foundation of my body and strength and come back in better shape than I was when I left.”
Friday was the first time Johnson has spoken with local media since he suffered a broken right leg 11 seconds into the Timbers Sept. 27 match at Toronto. He was told at the time that he would likely miss six months of soccer.
Johnson and fellow midfielder Diego Valeri, who tore his ACL in the final match of last season, have been doing daily strength and agility work with a trainer while their teammates prepare for the upcoming season.
“I feel good. I want to get back as soon as possible,” Johnson said. “But at the same time you don’t want to come back at 90 percent.”
Johnson said he knew instantly that he was badly hurt when he slid into the leg of Toronto’s Mark Bloom. He said he tried to “hold on for dear life and not let the pain get to my face” because his wife was watching on television.
The most difficult part of the experience was the frustration of not being able to put weight on his right leg for three months.
“Sitting on the couch in a cast for 12 weeks was brutally tough,” he said. Especially hard was when his 2-year-old daughter wanted to play with him, and not being much help for his wife with their infant son.
“Those things break you down far more than any pain physically,” he said.
Johnson said he has watched video of the injury at least 100 times. He said the wet field caused the ball to get away from him in the first place. In retrospect, he could have jumped out of Bloom’s path. But Johnson does not regret going after the ball.
“I’m the captain of this team. It was a massive, massive game and I wanted to set the tone and make sure that my guys knew I was committed to making a statement tackle on the first play of the game,” he said.
The injury will not change his aggressive nature, Johnson promised.
“With my personality, I love tackling, I love the feeling of it,” he said. “I don’t plan on changing anything. It was just a freak play.”
