Feilhaber returns to training; Holden cast removed; Davies set to rejoin Sochaux

Feilhaber, Holden, Davies progress

American midfielders Benny Feilhaber and Stuart Holden have taken steps forward as they try to get healthy in time for the World Cup, and forward Charlie Davies is set to resume training with Sochaux as he recovers from injuries sustained in a car crash.

AGF Aarhus in Denmark said Friday that Feilhaber has returned to training with the club after treatment for an ankle injury in Brazil. The team said the 25-year-old from UCLA, who was born in Brazil, spent several weeks recuperating on the beaches in Rio de Janeiro.

Team doctor Jens Bo Vestergaard Jorgensen said “things look really good with Benny.”

He says he was surprised by Feilhaber’s quick recovery and the midfielder will join full squad practice next week.

Feilhaber injured his ankle Feb. 15 while training with Aarhus. He has two goals in 31 international appearances, playing in all five U.S. games at last year’s Confederations Cup.

Holden said Friday he is walking without crutches as he recovers from a broken leg. He had surgery after his right leg was injured during a challenge by Nigel de Jong in the Americans’ 2-1 exhibition loss at the Netherlands on March 3.

In his first season with Premier League club Bolton after leaving Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo, the 24-year-old is expected to return to action next month as he tries to make the 23-man U.S. World Cup roster.

He wrote Friday on Twitter: “Good news, the CAST is off and I am walking without crutches.”

Holden has two goals in 11 international appearances.

Davies said he has left the Cap Sport Centre in Capbreton, where he had been since late February.

“Your boy is finally home!!! Feels so good to be back. Nothing like sleeping in your own bed,” he wrote Friday in his Twitter account. “Now just waiting for next week to start!!!”

The 23-year-old was likely to be on the U.S. World Cup roster before a one-vehicle accident Oct. 13 in Virginia. He sustained two broken bones in his right leg, a broken and dislocated left elbow, a broken nose, forehead and eye socket, a fracture in his face, a ruptured bladder and bleeding on his brain.

Davies, who was born in Manchester, N.H., and played for Boston College, hopes to play in games for Sochaux next month.

He has four goals in 17 games with the U.S. national team and was a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team. Davies had two goals in six matches with Sochaux before the accident.