USA national team coach Bob Bradley is planning to build the depth of his squad ahead of next year's World Cup to cover key injured players.
Bradley made comment of Sochaux forward Charlie Davies who will be out of action after suffering serious injuries in a car accident and AC Milan defender Oguchi Onyewu who sustained a knee injury whilst on international duty and said the plan would be to continue bringing in payers to give them experience ahead of the tournament in South Africa in June 2010.
"We're always trying to build our team in different ways. If we think back to last summer, Charlie was a player that I had seen play in April with Hammarby and felt that it was the right time to get him in with us for an extended period of time," Bradley said.
"I talked to him when he first came in about the thought that he would be with us not only for the Confederations Cup but possibly all of the Gold Cup and it was during that time period, specifically in the Confederations Cup, that we started to see that progress. And of course we're all disappointed that at the moment he's injured, but that type of thinking always continues with different players.
"We've done different things along the way-in the Confederations Cup, when we would make a move later in the game, Clint Dempsey would move up front. He's played for Fulham, in recent weeks, a little bit more up front. So you try to keep open all the different possibilities, hope that obviously that injured players have the possibility to come back.
"The same is true with Gooch (Onyewu). The timeframe that you can probably put down on paper for an injury like his is probably easier to know where he'll be a month from now, two months from now, three months from now," he added.
"In the meantime, we look for different ways to build the depth there. Carlos Bocanegra has played this year both as a left back and as a center back. We had a good opportunity in Confederations Cup to see Jay DeMerit play in important games and he did well.
"We're optimistic that his recovery is going well and we'll see him back on the field with Watford shortly. We played two games recently and it was a chance to play Jonathan Spector in the center in the back. So there's always different thoughts that go into building a team, and injuries force your hand a little bit more to ensure that there are different options available."
