(Q: How do you feel? What your status?)
"I don't feel great, because I had a kick in my lower spine and it is still swollen. We've had x-rays and MRIs on it and there's fluid in the spine and it affects the nerves a little bit so whenever I try to walk upstairs my leg buckles. I had the same problem in the game, I couldn't push off my right leg. But it's getting better and according to the doctors if we can get the fluid away I can play. So it's mostly get that away and I can play."
(Q: On the possibility of playing in the New York game)
"We don't know yet. If I can't the fluid away I can't play. We were off this weekend, I stayed in the whole weekend to get treatment and everyday to get treatment and hopefully it will help. But we don't know yet."
(Q: Thoughts on Peter Nowak's comments)
"What can I say. It's just laughable. When I heard it I laughed. I just think it's too low and pathetic to respond to."
(Q: Teammates motivated when you go down?)
"It shouldn't motivate. Soccer is a beautiful sport and it's supposed to be played in a technical way. But I think maybe when you feel like one of your teammates unfairly treated, then maybe you'll get together and try to protect each other a bit more. But it should never have to go to that stage."
(Q: Physicality of MLS play into your thoughts of staying here?)
"I don't want to go so far now. I love it here in Seattle and said I will try to do as good as I can for the league and try to promote it. And I said on my blog as well, I think the ref did - because I'm sometimes critical of the refereeing - but he tried to control the game and not let get them get away with too much. I think the people at the head of the league need to make a stance on how they want the game to be played. In England, every year before the season starts we have a meeting with all the referees, and this year they say we're going to push on this and that because he want the game to be cleaner or this way or this way. I'm not the guy the makes decisions. They have to make the decisions at the top on how they want the league to progress."
(Q: Is MLS too physical?)
"If you comment about these things, you always get some people who say you are moaning and this and that. I have done everything I can. I have put on six to eight pounds this season to try to, maybe what I think should be a foul when I've been pushed around last season, I didn't get fouled. I put on some muscles and hopefully that will help me. It's quite a delicate thing to talk about but I personally have the view that it is supposed to be a technical game. If you're not quick enough and you have to foul, that should be reprimanded."
(Q: How physicality compares to EPL)
"I think here, if you look at the game itself, I think it is as fast and strong and all that kind of things as the EPL. If you look at, for example, a player like [Wayne] Rooney what he does in that speed maybe people here can't do the same technical abilities at that speed. I think that's the difference. If you talk about how strong and stuff, it is the same thing. You probably get away with a little more here tackling-wise than you would in the EPL."
(Q: Do you think you'll be ready to go Saturday?)
"I really hope so. I think I turned a corner yesterday or overnight. I couldn't even walk up stairs yesterday and today I could have a small jog. It hurt a little bit but not too bad. Like I said, they say if the fluid gets flushed out, I need to move my body to get it to flush out, then I will be playing. But if the fluid doesn't get away . . . It has nothing to do with pain. It's mostly that my leg just wobbles when I try to stand on it."
(Q: When did you know it wasn't an injury you could jog off?)
"After about five minutes after the injury. Normally when you get a kick, it's like a bleeding or something. Five minutes then you start running. But it wouldn't go away, tried to push off my right leg. Just tried to stay on for the team, it was the first game of the season. I felt in the beginning of the game there was a bit of tension in the team, we were not calm. I just felt like it's better to keep my presence and we can calm down. Around the 60 minute, I felt it should be a man more. For me, it was annoying."
