FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – A healthy roster is of paramount importance as the New England Revolution embark upon a grueling stretch of six games in 19 days, and they got some good news on that front when they returned to the training ground on Tuesday morning.
Antonio Delamea, who was forced out of last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Columbus Crew SC just seven minutes into the second half after falling ill, was a full participant in training, and should be fully fit ahead of this weekend’s trip to visit Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
Delamea alerted the medical staff that he “wasn’t feeling 100 percent” at halftime of that meeting with Columbus, but felt good enough to start the second half. That quickly changed, however, as the 26-year-old center back looked to be a bit foggy as he hunched over shortly after the break.
“He was definitely fighting some sort of a bug,” said head coach Brad Friedel. “He just got really dizzy and weak, so we had to bring him out. The last couple days he’s had a lot of rest and you saw him out here (at training on Tuesday), so we shouldn’t have any problems with Toni going forward.”
Juan Agudelo is more of a question mark for Saturday’s visit to BC Place as he continues to recover from the hamstring injury that’s kept him out of the past two games, but the 25-year-old forward remains on course to return sometime in the very near future.
“He’ll be available for one, if not two, if not three of the games coming up,” Friedel said, referencing the Revs’ home games against Atlanta United FC (May 30) and the New York Red Bulls (June 2) following the trip to Vancouver. “It really is a day-to-day scenario with Juan.”
The Revs will also regain the services of leading chance creator Diego Fagundez this weekend as he returns after serving a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation.