{"id":32888,"date":"2015-03-27T14:15:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T18:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32888"},"modified":"2015-03-27T14:15:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T18:15:24","slug":"best-yet-to-come-for-100-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32888","title":{"rendered":"Best Yet to Come for ‘100%’ Jones?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 In a sense, the Revolution aren\u2019t just getting back the same Jermaine Jones that spurred them to a 9-1-1 regular season finish last year. They’re getting a healthier, and quite possibly, better version of him.<\/p>\n

Meeting with the local media for the first time since undergoing sports hernia surgery last month, Jones said that he had to fight through the injury to stay on the pitch last fall. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was over a year now that I was playing with it,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI\u2019m happy that the pain is (gone), and that (once) I come back on the field, I\u2019m really at a 100 percent, because last season, I wasn\u2019t at 100 percent. So I\u2019m happy that I can play without pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old midfielder said that the first time he noticed the pain was while he was playing in Germany for Schalke 04, and that he originally planned to have surgery following the 2014 World Cup.<\/p>\n

But with his eye on playing in MLS following the tournament \u2013 one in which he shined for the U.S. \u2013 he put off the surgery again until after the MLS Cup final. Then, he got a call for U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann to invite him to the January National Team camp.<\/p>\n

Once that camp concluded in early-February, Jones finally decided to have the surgery, especially with a potential work stoppage looming due to the protracted negotiations between MLS and the Players Union on a new collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n

Although he was able to rehabilitate the injury close to his home in Los Angeles under the supervision of the U.S. Soccer medical staff, Jones admitted that it wasn\u2019t easy being so far away from his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say the toughest part was to watch the games on the TV,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAs a member of this team, you want to help them, you want to be there to try (to do) everything you can to get the points. You see (that) they lost games, and you know how everything worked last season, so I would say that was the hardest part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that the U.S. International is back in Foxborough, coach Jay Heaps said that the focus is on getting Jones re-acclimated to training with his teammates, and working on the ball. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to have him back,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cAt the same time, his recovery is just as important. He\u2019s got a big year ahead of him, so it\u2019s important that his body is in the right place (because) I don\u2019t think it was ever there at the end of last year. So it\u2019s good to get him there, and I think he\u2019s closer to being 100 percent than he ever was with us (last year).\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Jones wasn\u2019t fully healthy last year, that didn\u2019t stop him from making a profound impact on the Revolution\u2019s fortunes. Not only did the club jump from sixth place to second by season\u2019s end, but they scored a league-best 11 postseason goals en route to their first MLS Cup final in seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played through pain through all the fall,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cIt was (about) managing the pain. I mean he\u2019s a tough guy, and he can get through it, but I think when you look at what\u2019s ahead for the summer, with the National Team and club team, he\u2019s got a lot ahead of him, so I think (the surgery) was the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Jones\u2019 absence from the squad was impossible to ignore during the club\u2019s first three games \u2013 three games in which the Revolution haven\u2019t found the back of the net \u2013 Heaps can\u2019t help but look at the bigger picture with respect to the health of his prized midfielder. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would\u2019ve liked to have gotten him back sooner, but we have to be mindful of what\u2019s best for the player,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cI think, ultimately, a 100 percent Jermaine\u2019s going to help us in the end the most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jermaine Jones said that he’ll be back ‘100 percent’ healthy after playing through pain last fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[891,1315,1274,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Jones-1.png?fit=600%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32888"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32890,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32888\/revisions\/32890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}