A Few Words With Chivas USA Midfielder Sasha Victorine

Former Galaxy midfielder Sasha Victorine scored two goals in five games after arriving from Kansas in mid-season last year and then suffered the worst injury of his career. I caught up with him the other day after training to get an update on his progress.

Question: How are you doing with rehab?
Answer: I'm not full practicing yet - hopefully in the next couple of weeks. The first four months or so has been good recovery-wise. ... The full use of my knee and my body has been a little difficult these last three weeks. We're still in the process of trying to get my full range of motion - the feeling I can do anything I want on the field without feeling any pain.

Q: So when do they project you should return?
A: Projections for these things are incredible. One guy recovers in nine months, one guy recovers in five months - it just depends. The projection (for me) has always been six to eight (months). But my feeling has always been close to five, so five would put me in the middle of April. I think I'm still on track for it. ... I still get occasional pain on certain moves - my turns and acceleration.

Q: It must have been frustrating sustaining an injury of this magnitude so soon after your arrival back in the South Bay?
Q: It was frustrating to me because after I had my injury I felt like I had a chance to make it on the playoff roster and I was two days away from getting back in the lineup ... and we found a couple of pieces floating around in my knee and the doctors shut me down and said you're done for the year. So at that point it was tough because obviously I'm sitting there watching the team play and I knew I felt I could help them if I could just get out there, but I wasn't allowed to. That was the tough part.

Q: What do you think is causing all these injuries at the club?
A: It's something we have to look at and see what's causing it- training-wise, staff-wise, players-wise and see what we can all do to make it better.

Q: Is Preki too tough on you guys?
A: The benefit for playing at a coach at this level, who has played even at a higher level than you, is that he obviously knows what he has done on the field, how to get teams prepared - he's kind of gone through the same thing. ... He does an amazing job preparing guys and getting in hard trainings.

Q: Do you like yoga? (Preki is famous for his adherence to yoga)
A: I like yoga. It's one of the things I do in the off-season myself just to stay flexible and limber and stuff. I think it is useful. I was talking to Chis Henderson when I was back in Kansas City talking about it is that what he used to do it in New York. And one of the things they had found was if you do yoga, do it on a consistent basis, otherwise you're more likely to create injuries. You've got to do it (at least) weekly, if not then probably not do it at all.