SAN JOSE, Calif. – Jordan Stewart didn’t last long as an Avaya Stadium spectator.
Forced to the sidelines in August of last year, Stewart could hardly watch as his team, the San Jose Earthquakes, carried on their pursuit of a playoff spot without him. The uncertainty of being a 33-year-old professional soccer player with a left Achilles tendon that had just been surgically sewn back together was a little too much to bear.
“The second game [following the injury], I left early,” Stewart told MLSsoccer.com this week. “The third game, I didn’t even come at all. And that wasn’t a case of me not wanting to support the guys – I watched the games at home – but obviously you’re in the stadium, the fans, everyone’s asking you how long it’s going to be. And you haven’t got the answer for that. . . I thought I would just stay at home, watch the game there and kind of take my mind off me as a player.”
Those were just a few of the moments that might have flashed through Stewart’s mind Saturday night as he celebrated setting up Chris Wondolowski’s goal against the Seattle Sounders. It was Stewart’s first assist since May 16, 2015, and it came some 13 months after the Englishman sprawled to the same Avaya turf, felled by a non-contact injury that, given his age, could have been his last MLS action.
“Last year at this time, it was a trying time for him, very frustrating,” Wondolowski told MLSsoccer.com. “I’m so happy for him, because I’ve seen the hard work that he’s put in, day in and day out. It’s paying off, and we need him.”
It was a long slog back to health for Stewart, now 34, after he went down against the Colorado Rapids – the same team San Jose faces this weekend – when his leg simply gave out with no warning. Stewart, who had never had Achilles problems before, couldn’t help but wonder about the worst.
“When I first did it, straight after the game, in my head I was like, ‘This is probably it. I’m probably going to have to retire,’” Stewart said. “And it wasn’t an upset feeling, it was a feeling of not finishing the way I wanted to finish. More disappointment than anything.”
Stewart underwent surgery the following week and continued to work out at the team facility even as he and the club were working out the details of a new contract, his old deal having expired at the end of last season. The team announced in January that they had reached an agreement to bring back Stewart – but there were still hurdles to overcome in the recovery process.
Stewart started doing jogging drills in January but quickly stalled out, sensing little progress for the better part of a month. Behind the broad smile that has been a Stewart trademark, doubt crept in.
“I felt like I was on a plateau for three or four weeks,” Stewart said. “At the time, I didn’t say anything because I was trying to stay upbeat and keep working hard, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking, ‘Am I not going to be able to get to a level where I can play professionally again?’”
Stewart persevered, however, and made his return on June 1 against Portland. He still needed a few weeks to get to “a real 100 percent, feeling like I could do everything I want to do,” but has started eight of the Quakes’ last nine games as they try to chase down a Western Conference playoff spot.
Stewart’s offensive capabilities came to the forefront Saturday as he latched onto a long cross-field pass from Victor Bernardez – helped by a friendly bounce off Sounders defender Tyrone Mears, whose interception attempt went awry – and sent a first-time cross for Wondolowski to tap home. The all-out sprint by Stewart after Mears’ awkward touch showed no evidence of a player worried about another leg injury.
Instead, it was the mark of someone who hopes to help San Jose break their postseason drought.
“If you don’t know the guy, you could look at that injury, in the stage of his career, and figure that could be maybe close to him not playing anymore,” San Jose coach Dominic Kinnear said. “But his work in the offseason and in preseason to get himself ready for when he came back was really impressive, and I think he’s done well with the time he’s played.”
