Patience is a virtue that Calum Mallace knows all too well by now.
Last seen near an MLS field on April 16, when he made the bench for the Impact’s 2-1 win at Chicago, Mallace returned to training on the sidelines this week after recovering from a foot bone bruise. But more than the injury itself, the wait was painful.
“With my injury, the doctors said it would have been better if I’d just broken it, because I would have known right away: six weeks out, and then I could have known,” Mallace said on Wednesday. “But they said three or four weeks, and every week, it kept piling up. It kills you mentally.”
Unable to train with his teammates, and with no return date set, Mallace strived to remain positive while working out in the gym. When he returns to the field, likely sometime in the next few weeks, he will have missed more than two months of action – the longest he’s been out since he turned pro. And he doesn’t want that next chance to slip away.
“The foot feels great,” Mallace said. “I’ve just got to get into that match fitness. It takes a little while. This week, we didn’t want to get me in too early, so I’ve been doing stuff on my own, working with the fitness coach to get me there. I think that, next week, I’ll be back in with the group and ready to go.”
