CARSON, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Galaxy's Sean Franklin has been making his way around the lockerroom, meeting his new teammates and trying to get to know their names. There at least 12 of them he's had to learn.
Unfortunately, that's about all he can do.
Franklin can't kick a ball, run or jump and has been relegated to watching training camp from the sideline as he recovers from sports hernia surgery. Last year's MLS Rookie of the Year recently returned from Munich, Germany, where he underwent the hour-long procedure and admitted he's getting a little anxious to get back on the playing field.
But he knows better.
At this point he's confined to riding an exercise bicycle until he's cleared to start running. Franklin, who turns 24 in March, said he feels great, but he keeps telling himself to take things slowly. And that's the hard part.
"I mess around with the trainers all the time," he said. "I ask them to let me go out there and run, to let me do some stuff, but I know I can't. They're taking good care of me."
Franklin, the fourth overall pick in last year's SuperDraft out of Cal State Northridge, made 26 starts in 27 appearances in 2008 and was one of the few positive developments in an otherwise dreary Galaxy season. The 5-foot-10, 155-pounder, who played primarily at right back, was so impressive he was called up to the U.S. men's national team for a World Cup qualifier against Guatemala but did not play. He was in camp again last month with the national team for a recent friendly against Sweden, but it wasn't long before he started to feel pain in his lower abdomen.
Actually, the pain had been bothering him for some time, he said.
"It was an ongoing thing at the end of the season," he pointed out. "Then with the U.S. team in early January, I could tell it was getting worse. I went to doctors and told them everything, and I realized it was something serious."
He received an injection to relieve the discomfort, but it didn't help. His next option was surgery, which was performed just under two weeks ago.
Franklin thinks he'll be able to do some light running later this week and then what he called "straightforward stuff," but the ill-timed inactivity hasn't kept him from feeling confident he can be ready to go by the start of the regular season on March 22 against D.C. United.
He said he won't even try to go until "I feel it's 100 percent" and he can run without any pain. Franklin said he isn't worried that he's dropping behind as his teammates adjust to the first training camp under coach/general manager Bruce Arena.
"Do I feel left out? Not really," he said. "It hasn't bothered me. I don't feel like everyone else is going to be much farther along. I want everyone to do well and work hard, and when I get my chance to get back out there I'll work just as hard.
"At times it's frustrating, sure, because I do want to get out there. I want to run and I want to put on the spikes. I want to be with everybody, and hopefully I can pick up where I left off last year."
And if he can do little more at this point except listen and watch, so be it.
"All I want to do is get out there and play with the guys," he said. "But I know my time will come."
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