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SANDY — Real Salt Lake veteran defender Chris Wingert, the Salt Lake club’s longest-tenured field player, could make his first appearance this season in the first-team lineup Saturday against Chivas USA as the club returns to Rio Tinto Stadium to begin a three-game home stint.
“I’m ready. I’m ready,” Wingert told ESPN 700 in a radio interview Thursday. “I guess we probably won’t find out the lineup until (Friday), but I’m getting pretty antsy and I feel ready to go.”
Following one of his best seasons with the Salt Lake club in 2012, Wingert suffered an offseason injury to his right foot (metatarsal fracture) in December that has kept him off of the pitch until now — 1 1/2 months into the season.
“Fortunately, a lot of the recovery time was spent in the offseason — in terms of rehabbing and missing time away from soccer,” said Wingert. “It’s never ideal to miss games, but again, fortunately it wasn’t too many and it was at the beginning of the season. Hopefully once I get back, I’ll be healthy for the rest of the way.”
Wingert first returned to the pitch this season following his injury for the club’s reserve team April 1 as it hosted BYU's men’s soccer team in an exhibition match. Wingert entered the match in the 60th minute and posted 30-plus minutes for the Claret and Cobalt.
The RSL veteran defender started the Salt Lake club’s next reserve match just five days later on April 6 and played for 70 minutes as the reserves took on the Colorado Rapids. Wingert also participated in the most recent reserve match against the Vancouver Whitecaps earlier this week, April 14, seeing the pitch for the full 90 minutes.
“I think it was good for me to get a full match in on Sunday and another full week of practice and my body is feeling good so I’m pretty excited to hopefully be out there,” Wingert said.
In 2012, Wingert saw the pitch for RSL in 31 regular-season matches, 30 of which were starts. He posted two assists and finished the year with 2,603 regular-season minutes for the Claret and Cobalt. Wingert has been with the Salt Lake club since 2007, with previous Major League Soccer seasons with the Colorado Rapids (2005-2007) and the Columbus Crew (2004-2005).
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
