After lengthy spells on the sideline, US national team strikers Aron Johannsson and Terrence Boyd are nearing full returns to their Bundesliga teams.
Johannsson, who has been out for the better part of the last year due to a hip injury and ensuing complications from surgery, made his first appearance of the preseason for Werder Bremen on Wednesday, coming on in the 62nd minute of the German club’s exhibition win over lower division side SV Meppen.
Johannsson moved from Dutch club AZ Alkmaar to Bremen last summer, scoring two goals in six league appearances with the club before being diagnosed with a nerve irritation in his right hip in early October. The injury kept him out for the rest of the year, forcing the 2014 World Cup and 2015 Gold Cup veteran to miss this summer’s Copa América Centenario.
Boyd has been out even longer than Johannsson, missing most of the last two years due to a series of knee injuries. The target striker returned to training with Bundesliga newcomers RB Leipzig this summer, and has appeared in several of the club’s preseason friendlies.
US Under-23 head coach and senior national team assistant Andi Herzog recently checked in on Boyd, who last appeared for the USMNT in March 2014, in Germany. Herzog was reportedly impressed with the 25-year-old striker, telling Bild that he “did not expect [Boyd] to be in this type of form” and that if the German-American can continue on his current trajectory, “he will soon be a candidate again for the national team.”
Both Werder Bremen and RB Leipzig will begin the Bundesliga campaign in a couple of weeks, with Johannsson and Bremen facing off with American Julian Green and defending champions Bayern Munich on Aug. 26 before Boyd and Leipzig take on Hoffenheim on Aug. 28.
