FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- No one was happier to hold training in the rain than New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol.
The source of the happiness wasn't from the drenched conditions. Players slogged in from the waterlogged field, hustling into the locker room to find a warm shower and dry clothes after spending almost two hours outside in the chilly rain.
It came in the form of seeing his team embark on a regular week of training with Chris Albright and Steve Ralston in tow.
Lately, Nicol's first stop when compiling the teamsheet involved the trainer's room. Slowly but surely, his team is getting healthy.
"[This] ten days will be a good break to get people back fit," Nicol said.
Traversing the better part of the country over the past few weeks didn't help much. Training sessions were few and far between and travel was long and arduous. For a team that predicates itself on rhythm, cadence hasn't prevailed recently.
But with results like the victory against FC Dallas last Thursday, the team could afford to limp along until an off-weekend prior to Saturday's home game against Chicago.
"The break is for our injured players," Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph said.
The veteran midfielder suggested he could use the return to normalcy to heal a pair of strained calf muscles that he has played on during the past few weeks, but Joseph's tenacity means there are other injury concerns to focus upon this week.
Both Ralston and Albright participated in passing drills on Monday morning, while other injury victims like Jeff Larentowicz, Taylor Twellman and Sainey Nyassi trained aside from their teammates while working on fitness and recovery.
Nicol said he was pleased to see those players back in training. But the Revs manager also cautioned that progress can only be gauged as the week progresses and noted the injured players had to come back into the team gradually.
"Obviously, Rally has to be careful to avoid being banged," Nicol said. "Albright is feeling good. He was complaining that he was ready last week, but he really wasn't. We'll have to see what happens and see how everyone reacts to a full day's training today."
Joseph believes his team has increased its depth while ravaged with injury and thinks his team will be even better off once those key players return over the course of the next few weeks.
"Once everyone comes back, we're going to be ready to fight and ready to battle," Joseph said. "We'll continue to do well."
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