John Thorrington appears fully recovered from a nagging left hamstring strain that had forced him to sit out of all but three of Chicago's first 22 MLS matches in his first year with the Fire.
As the Fire enter the final stretch of league matches with their top two regular season priorities in the balance -- the top spot in the Eastern Conference (and the home field advantage in the postseason that comes with it) and their second MLS Supporters Shield title as the league's top team in the regular season -- Thorrington's return to health is analogous to the Fire making a late-season key acquisition.
Thorrington's game-winning goal in Chicago's 2-1 victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy Saturday at Soldier Field could become the 25-year-old midfielder's watershed moment.
The Southern California native saw his first action in nearly two months as a late-match substitute on Wednesday night against the Kansas City Wizards before starting only his second match of the season Saturday against the Galaxy.
"It's the greatest feeling in the world to score and help the team win," said Thorrington.
In the 38th minute, Thorrington made a well-timed run down the right flank, culminating with heady positioning just outside of the six-yard box, for his game-winning goal -- a header off a service from Justin Mapp.
"Justin just did his thing," said Thorrington. "When Justin gets the ball, nine times out of 10 you know the cross is coming and he was up against good players out there on the left, but I still had the confidence he would get the cross in.
"For me to score with my head it has to be a great ball served and it was. I had the easy part of just nodding it inside the back post."
How long has Fire head coach Dave Sarachan been waiting for Thorrington to make an impact?
"Let's see," said the coach as he looked down at his watch, "It's been seven months or so.
"When we acquired John, I thought we were getting a good player and he's had a tough situation this year with injuries and setbacks," acknowledged Sarachan.
"We made a commitment to make sure that when the time was right we'd use him and that we would wait until he was healthy. He is healthy now and we are pleased that he was able to get his first career MLS goal."
It had been a frustrating year for Thorrington up until his header passed Galaxy 'keeper Kevin Hartman and rippled the net.
"The toughest thing for me has been mentally for me dealing with the physical side of it. Being injured, being in and out and not training and playing as often as I want, it has been mentally tough for me to deal with the physical side of things," said Thorrington.
Thorrington has been bothered by injuries throughout his young career, but this injury was particularly frustrating.
"I've never had a problem like this before. The nature of it has been frustrating. It was tough to diagnose, it was tied into a disk problem, a nerve problem. All the pain manifested itself in my hamstring but the cause of it was a disk in my back in conjunction with a hip alignment problem that was pinching a nerve that worked down my hamstring," said Thorrington.
"The Fire's medical staff and I decided to go to L.A. and get it sorted, which we did and I'm reaping the rewards of it now."
"I've worked very hard on rehabilitation. It's an ongoing rehabilitation, I have to do it every morning and be conscientious about it."
Is Thorrington 100 percent fit?
"You can only replicate so much in training and the rest comes with games," the relieved midfielder said with a smile. "Tonight was my first game in about two months and there's a difference between fitness and match fitness and I was breathing heavy towards the end."
"But it will come, it will come."
Ivaldo Basso is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
