CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Chicago Fire attack will hopefully be reunited with preseason trialist, turned loanee Grant Ward in the next week with the Tottenham Hotspur player closer to finishing his recovery from a broken metatarsal suffered in early March.
The report comes from Fire Technical Director Brian Bliss who said the 19-year-old winger should arrive in Chicago between May 8-11 on Saturday’s episode of Chicago Fire Weekly on ESPN 1000.
Bliss said that Fire head athletic trainer Bo Leonard has kept in close contact with his counterpart at Tottenham as well as both he and head coach Frank Yallop speaking to the player about his recovery from the injury.
“The program with him is to get him with us for six, seven, eight days and then potentially use him in the Reserve match on the 18th if everything goes well,” said Bliss.
The Fire Reserves will play USL PRO side Richmond Kickers on May 18 following the first team’s match against Sporting KC at Toyota Park.
If everything goes smoothly on Ward’s Stateside return, Bliss said the plan would be for him to get 15-20 minutes in that match.
“From what we understand he’s right on target, from there we’ll see what form he’s in.”
Ward was a revelation trialist for the Fire, scoring two goals in preseason before returning to Tottenham as part of an arrangement between the two clubs.
The English winger was set to re-join the Fire for the start of the season but suffered a broken metatarsal in his right foot just before the club received his international transfer certificate in early March.
Bliss also spoke about the salary budget he and Yallop had to begin working with when they came in late last year and gave a view towards a potential summer target for the Fire.
Listen to the full episode here.
