Davies plots Sochaux return, World Cup call

Sochaux’s American international striker Charlie Davies said on Friday that he hopes to return to fitness in time for the World Cup after being seriously injured in a car crash in October.

After weeks of rehabilitation, the 23-year-old resumed individual training with his French first division side on Monday.

“I’m dying to get back with the guys,” he told reporters at the club’s training ground. “I don’t even know how it will feel, my first training session back. It’s like finishing a 50-mile marathon.

“It’ll just be such a feeling of achievement and I know I’ll still have a way to go after. I’m just counting down the days until I’m back with the team.”

Davies sustained fractures to his face and elbow, a badly broken leg and a lacerated bladder after a one-car accident on a motorway in the Washington suburbs on October 13 that left one female passenger dead.

Initial reports suggested he might need 12 months to fully recover but, just over five months since the accident, he is already planning his return.

“I’ve looked at the calendar. I hope to be able to play against Montpellier on May 5 or at Bordeaux on May 8,” said Davies, who netted twice in Sochaux’s 3-2 defeat by reigning champions Bordeaux on August 15.

“It’s great to prove people wrong and it adds more fuel to the fire when people tell me, ‘There’s no way you’re going to be back for Sochaux this season, there’s no way you’re going to be in the World Cup’,” he said.

“I have this burning desire in me to get back and I know I’m going to.

“I hope to play in two or three matches with Sochaux in May before joining the American training camp just after the last day of the season.”

Davies, who joined mid-table Sochaux from Swedish club Hammarby last summer, has scored four goals in 17 international appearances for the USA.

Bob Bradley’s side were drawn in Group C at the World Cup alongside England, Algeria and Slovenia.

Davies spent time with England left-back Ashley Cole and Ghana midfielder Michael Essien, both of Chelsea, during his rehabilitation in Capbreton (south-western France) and said the encounters made him even hungrier to make it to the World Cup in South Africa, which starts on June 11.

“It was a great place and I met a lot of great people,” he said.

“Michael Essien and Ashley Cole were there and that definitely helped because it gave me more motivation, working with people who could be at the World Cup as well.”