LONDON — Danny Williams is almost back ready to be a terrier for the Terriers.
The Huddersfield Town and U.S. men’s national team midfielder, 29, has been out since March with an ankle injury and he suffered a setback after his return to the pitch in late August.
[ VIDEO: Premier League highlights ]
Williams was a mainstay for Huddersfield in 2017-18 as they started their first-ever Premier League campaign brightly before just managing to stay up in the final days of the season. The energy and drive of the German-American midfielder has been missed by both Huddersfield and the USMNT in recent months.
Speaking exclusively to Pro Soccer Talk, Williams revealed he is back in training and is close to a return for club and country. When will he be back?
“Hopefully soon,” Williams said. “The story of my life is that I have to bounce back from injuries. When I have injuries that are always big. I never have muscle injuries. When they come they come big. I broke my ankle in March, fought my way back, went to LA to do the rehab and everything and came back strong and everything was good. Then I had my first game against Stoke in the League Cup (Aug. 28), but then two weeks ago my knee started to swell up. I think that is just the body telling me that I shouldn’t overdo it and maybe it isn’t ready yet, but the ankle has been perfect. It is just my knee I am a bit worried about. I think I got that sorted the last two weeks, I did a lot of work on that in the gym and hopefully I can start to train with the team this week.”
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Playing against Liverpool this Saturday (Watch live, 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC and online via NBCSports.com) at the John Smith’s Stadium may come a little too soon for Williams, but he has his eye on an upcoming game.
With the USMNT playing England at Wembley and facing Italy in Belgium next month in their final two matches of 2018, Williams is hoping to return to the Stars and Stripes. He captained the USMNT against Portugal in his last international appearance last November but has been out injured, and unavailable, ever since.
“Everybody likes to represent the country and that is the biggest honor for me, especially captaining the team against Portugal last year after I missed out on the World Cup qualifiers” Williams said. “It was a huge honor for me and that is of course the big aim for myself to play here against England at Wembley… I really hope that I can join back up with the national team because I still think I have a lot more to give and I aiming to be back for that game.”
Watch the interview with Danny in full in the two videos above, as he visited Wembley to watch the Seattle Seahawks and Oaklands Raiders play in the opening game of the NFL’s 2018 International Series in London.
