TTFF NEWS - Doubts over Carlos Ruiz and James

Doubts over Carlos Ruiz and James

Issued by Shaun Fuentes, TTFF Media Officer, October 1, 2008

Toronto FC has reported injury doubts over Trinidad and Tobago defender Julius James and Guatemala’s ace striker Carlos Ruiz.

The club’s coach John Carver is hoping that Ruiz and James will be fit enough to return to full training by the end of the week. Ruiz missed Saturday's clash against Houston Dynamo with a knee injury whilst James had a hamstring strain. Both players have been called up by their respective countries for the October 11 World Cup qualifier in Guatemala City.

"Carlos is day to day," said Carver. "He is getting better all the time and hopefully he will be able to join in training towards the end of the week. He's very close to being back. Julius did some training this morning. I don't think he will play in the reserve game on Tuesday morning but we will assess him by the end of the week. If those guys aren't available for us on Saturday, they won't be going away on international duty.”

Ruiz netted a double in Guatemala’ come from behind 4-1 victory over Cuba in their last World Cup qualifier in Guatemala City last month.

James, once passed fit, is carded to be in Trinidad on October 6 in time for the friendly international against Dominican Republic at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on October 8 from 5pm. Joe Public takes on Canada’s Montreal Impact from 8:11pm in a CONCACAF Champions League encounter in the second fixture.

Meantime Sunderland manager Roy Keane also noted that Kenwyne Jones has made “good progress” in his recovery from a knee injury but will need at least another three weeks before returning to action. "Both Kenwyne and Martyn Waghorn are making brilliant progress. They both saw the surgeon last week and he was absolutely delighted with the two of them," Keane said.

Jones started running last month and had targeted either the first week of October for a return but it now looks likely that he may have to wait slightly longer.

“I’m slowly getting back there. I had targeted the game on Saturday (vs Arsenal). I’m not going to push it too much but I’m just thankful to God that I can be back on my legs again and get back to training. I want to be playing but I want to make sure I am one hundred percent and I will be working totally towards that,” Jones told TTFF Media.