USA international Charlie Davies is making a remarkable recovery from injuries sustained in a serious car accident in October last year.
The 23-year old Sochaux striker suffered a broken right femur and tibia, a broken left elbow, facial fractures and a lacerated bladder in the crash that killed another passenger and is expected to endure up to 12 months of rehabilitation and physiotherapy.
But it has been revealed that Davies is coming along much better than expected in some good news for the promising forward.
"Charlie is pretty much light years ahead of where anybody would tell you he should be," said Jim Hashimoto, the former U.S. national team trainer who is overseeing Davies rehabilitation.
"When everybody heard about the accident, including myself, it was like, 'OK, this is going to be a long one' - and it's still going to be a long one, but to see his progress is pretty amazing."
Davies is confident he can return to full fitness and is expected to commence training with his French club by the end of February, paving the way for a tilt at making the USA World Cup squad.
"The World Cup is easy for me to be back for," said Davies. "I want to get back to France, and I don't want to just get back - I want to be good.
"I don't want to be that guy just to make the [World Cup] team and just sit there. I want to be back and starting and scoring, playing well and doing the things I know I can do.
| "People haven't seen the progress I've made, and maybe they don't know the kind of person I am and the motivation and new appreciation for being able to play that I have."
His national teammate Oguchi Onyewu said that Davies was intent on making that squad and labelled Davies' plight as a 'Superman' story.
"Charlie knows he's going to be there," Onyewu said. "I know Charlie's going to be there, or at least physically capable of being there. After that, it's the coach that decides the roster.
"He's doing unbelievably, to be honest," Onyewu added. "I think once the final part of his surgery on his elbow goes through, I think it's going to be flying from there on. I don't think anybody anticipated or expected him to recover or to heal this quickly. It's sort of a Superman story."
