After car wreck, Davies eager to get back in game

When Charlie Davies' muscles are screaming and his lungs feel as if they're about to explode, he pictures U.S. soccer team coaches watching, waiting to see what else the forward has in him.

He hears coach Bob Bradley telling him to keep pushing, keep chasing the dream of a miraculous comeback that he's held onto since the car crash that nearly killed him seven months ago.

``Don't expect it to be easy,'' the voice tells him. ``For you to achieve great things, you've got to work hard.''

``I've had milestones where I've had huge accomplishments,'' Davies said in a phone interview this week from France, where he has resumed full training with his club, Sochaux. ``I really can't be satisfied or happy until I reach my final goal, which is to get into a match before the season ends and then playing with the U.S.''

A preliminary, 30-man World Cup roster is due to FIFA by Tuesday, and Bradley will bring 26 to 28 players to a training camp that begins four days later in Princeton, N.J. The final 23-man roster is due June 1.

Though Bradley is happy with Davies' progress, he sounded skeptical the 23-year-old could make this team. There is no room for sentimentality when deciding who gets coveted roster spots. If Davies can't prove he's as strong and in as good a shape as the rest of the Americans, Bradley will have to pass him by.

Davies hasn't played in a match since Oct. 10, and Sochaux has only three games left before the season ends May 15.

``The final steps are the hardest steps,'' Bradley said last week. ``We still need to see where that goes.''

But don't count Davies out, not after everything he's already accomplished.

A strong, speedy forward, Davies' breakout play in World Cup qualifying and the Confederations Cup last year made him an integral part of the U.S. squad and earned him a promotion to Sochaux in France's top division. He seemed a sure bet to make the World Cup roster.

Then, on Oct. 13, a car crash on the George Washington Parkway in Virginia left another passenger dead and Davies, also a passenger, with devastating injuries. His left elbow was broken and dislocated. His right femur, tibia and fibula were broken, as were his nose, forehead and eye socket. He had a ruptured bladder, and bleeding on the brain.

Doctors estimated recovery would be six months to a year, essentially ending Davies' World Cup hopes.

He had other ideas.

``When I heard that, the first thing that went through my mind is, 'Oh, no way. I'll be back sooner,''' he said.

Released from the hospital on Nov. 10, Davies went to Delaware to rehab with James ``Hash'' Hashimoto, who has worked with the U.S. men's team. Though Davies was eager to get back on the field as soon as possible, the initial goals were much more modest.

Like standing. Walking. Dressing himself.

``You know how you say, 'I need 10 minutes to get ready.' For Charlie, at that point, it was, 'I need probably an hour,''' Hashimoto said. ``The little things had become very difficult.''

Davies did rehab at least five or six hours each day, working on land and in a pool, to regain his strength and range of motion. By December, Davies was walking again. That was earlier than doctors had predicted, and Hashimoto was concerned it was the metal rods inserted in Davies' leg, not his bones, that were carrying the load.

When metal is inserted into a bone for stability, it's meant to be load-sharing, not load-bearing, Hashimoto said. If the rods were carrying all the weight, they would eventually deteriorate.

X-rays, however, showed Davies' bones had healed.

But the following day, he felt a stabbing pain in his thigh. A small piece of bone was sticking out, splinter-like, from where his femur had broken - he and Hashimoto dubbed it ``Snaggletooth'' - and it was stabbing the surrounding soft tissue whenever Davies used his quadriceps muscle.

So optimistic just a day earlier, Davies was now dejected. How could he keep progressing if he couldn't raise his leg without causing excruciating pain?

After a few days off and heavy massage work, though, the pain disappeared. It's never come back, and the shard had begun to round off in Davies' last X-ray.

``That's when I was like, 'OK, I'm going to make it,''' Davies said.

Davies posted frequent progress reports on Twitter throughout his recovery and rehab. While the updates were always positive, Davies admits there were times he got discouraged.

He barely slept the first two months after the accident, unable to stop thinking about the crash and the choices that had put him in the car in the first place. Though he wasn't driving, he had broken curfew, knowing he wouldn't be playing in the last, meaningless World Cup qualifier.

``For the first couple of months, I beat myself up every day,'' said Davies, who apologized to Bradley and his teammates. ``I broke a rule, and of course I never meant to let down my teammates and the coaches and my family and my girlfriend. You grow from these things, and they understand I'm deeply sorry.''

But he no longer dwells on it, preferring to keep his focus firmly on his future.

``It's definitely life-changing,'' he said. ``It happened to me for a reason. God had this happen to me because he knew I could overcome it with hard work.''

Work hard, he has.

``Once we got through 'Snaggle,' things started rolling,'' Hashimoto said. ``Things started falling into place.''

After surgery on his elbow in early February that allowed him to bend his arm again, Davies returned to France to continue rehab at a training center where Chelsea's Ashley Cole and Michael Essien were trying to come back from more standard injuries. On March 18, Davies was cleared to go back to Sochaux.

``Who said I couldn't be back training so soon!? Let's go!! God Bless!!'' Davies said on Twitter.

He spent the first few weeks training on his own, running, doing ball work and continuing to work on his strength and fitness. Finally, a week ago, Davies joined his teammates in full training.

They wasted no time welcoming him back.

Davies was holding his own as he and a defender battled shoulder to shoulder for a ball last Wednesday. Then another defender slid in and sent Davies flying.

``When I hit the ground, the only thing I thought was, 'Wow. That felt so good to be tackled,''' he said, laughing. ``To be able to feel no pain (was great), just getting right back up and getting back into flow of the game.''

In addition to the team's regular practice, Davies does a 2-hour session that includes agility work, passing drills and shooting. The U.S. staff gets updates from Sochaux every week, and head athletic trainer Ivan Pierra visited Davies last week.

While Davies' chances of making the World Cup roster still seem like a longshot, Bradley appears reluctant to rule him out until the last possible moment. If this comeback falls short, there is always the 2010-11 club season, not to mention the 2014 World Cup.

But Davies hasn't come this far, worked this hard, to stop now. As if he needs any reminder, all he has to do is look in the mirror: The scar that runs from one ear to another, a remnant of one of his surgeries, is plainly visible now that he's shaved his head.

``It's just another battle wound to show, 'Look what I've come from. Look what I've done.' Hopefully it's motivation for other people that they can get back to doing what they love,'' he said. ``With confidence and hard work, anything is possible.''