Vorstellungen » n pushing: “I am keeping my fingers crossed for the Olym

TORONTO -- Striker Jermain Defoe says he is back to 100 per cent and ready to play for Toronto FC -- and England. "Its been really frustrating because when you get off to a good start, you just want it to continue as long as possible," said Defoe, who scored three goals in his first two games in Major League Soccer before being sidelined with a hamstring strain in late March. "But it happens. Its football, you get little niggles. Luckily enough it wasnt something that was too serious. It was just a case of resting and doing your rehab stuff. But yeah it feels fine now. I feel 100 per cent. Ive worked really hard. So maybe Ill come back stronger than I was before, which is important for the team." Saturdays game against the visiting New England Revolution (3-3-2) will mark five weeks since Defoe walked off the field favouring his hamstring in the 61st minute of a 3-0 loss to Real Salt Lake. Thanks to a bye, he only missed three games with Toronto (3-3-0) going 1-2-0 in his absence. Defoe, speaking to reporters after practice Tuesday, rubbished the suggestion that the injury layoff may affect his chances at making Englands World Cup squad. England manager Roy Hodgson plans to name his 23-man roster on May 13. "I missed three games. It happens in football, players get injured," said the 31-year-old Defoe, who has won 55 caps for England. "But if you miss three games and that changes the fact that you could, I dont know, go to a tournament, thats crazy." Manager Ryan Nelsen says he has not heard from the English camp. "Not yet," he said. Defoe, for one, does think much talk is needed. "I dont feel like I need to sell myself to anyone because Ill just let my football do the talking. Ive done that since I made my professional debut at 17 ... Im sure the manager knows what I can do." Defoe said not only is he 100 per cent physically, he feels stronger than he did before. Toronto FC officials have said privately they had to put the brakes on Defoe, who has acknowledges he is not known for his patience during injury layoffs. Defoes final days at Tottenham were marred by another hamstring injury. "Its a case of just getting it (the hamstring) strong again. Maybe I didnt do that before," he said. "I think now Ive really given it time to heal," he added. Defoe said his style of plays lends itself to hamstring issues -- "sometimes I go from a standing still position to get up to full speed." Toronto has had a spate of hamstring injuries this season with midfielders Jonathan Osorio, Alvaro Rey and Dwayne De Rosario all missing action. The club has said having to train longer than usual on artificial turf because of the harsh winter has not helped matters. Ironically it would have liked to have been able to practise under the bubble on turf Tuesday because of a downpour. But with the bubble about to come down, the lighting system had been dismantled and so they endured the rain outside. The good news is that the walking wounded are returning after the bye week. Osorio is already back in action while Nelsen says Rey, De Rosario and centre back Doneil Henry (knee) are "very close" to returning. Nelsen says the only player definitely out for this weekends game is midfielder Jeremy Hall (Achilles). Striker Bright Dike (Achilles) is also a long-term injury absence. Star U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley, who has been nursing a variety of ailments, is also doing well. Injuries have hampered Nelsen in blending his squad, which features three new designated players in Defoe, Bradley and Brazilian striker Gilberto and as many as five other new starters since last season. Two weeks ago against Colorado, he was unable to assemble a fully healthy bench. While Toronto has given up seven goals in six games, it has scored just six with Defoe accounting for three of them Toronto is getting healthy at the right time. After three games in April, Toronto has six in May including a home-and-away series with the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Amway Canadian Championship. Three of the four league games are at home so May represents a chance to harvest points. With Bradley, Brazilian goalie Julio Cesar and possibly Defoe joining their national teams at the end of May ahead of the World Cup, points may be harder to come by later. While Defoe has not yet heard from Hodgson, Cesar says he reached out to Luiz Felipe Scolari to invite him to Toronto after reading that the Brazil coach had visited players in Europe. "I was a little bit jealous," Cesar said with a smile. Jose Martinez Cardinals Jersey . - Regan Smith had the checkered flag in sight at Daytona a year ago and a freight train of cars in his rearview mirror. Vince Coleman Jersey . The 33-year-old Spaniard, who held the lead since the second round, turned in a solid final round that featured six birdies and two bogeys to finish on 22-under 266. The victory is Garcias first this year with his last win coming at the Johor Open, an Asian Tour event in Malaysia last December. http://www.authenticcardinalspro.com/ . Edmonton opened the season with 14 straight victories before falling Friday night 10-8 to the host Colorado Mammoth in National Lacrosse League action. Tim McCarver Jersey . The Islanders own the fifth pick in the 2014 draft but had until June 1 to decide whether to keep it or defer to 2015. The selection was packaged in the teams deal for Thomas Vanek on October 27, 2013. Ken Boyer Cardinals Jersey . -- Canadas Nicole Vandermade won the Four Winds Invitational on Sunday for her first Symetra Tour title, closing with a 4-under 68 for a one-stroke victory.Heres what I have learned about Sarah Burke. She was a pioneer. She did things on skis that made the birds take notice. Sarah Burke was a crusader. For years she fought to get womens halfpipe recognized as a sport. She was a dreamer too. Her mom, Jan Phelan, told me that even as a little kid she wanted to ski in the Olympics. Jan still lives and makes art only a few blocks away from her daughters house in Squamish, B.C. A few weeks before the Sochi Olympics I went to meet her to talk about her daughters legacy. She told me about how when Sarah took up halfpipe as a teenager, as the only woman in the sport, she competed against men. “So she said , Okay, I will compete against the senior men. And so she came fourth, and landed the first 1080 in a competition. And so of all of these men, many of whom were on the world cup circuit, Sarah, this little kid came fourth. Isnt that something?" Thats how Sarah Burke first put womens halfpipe on the map. But she didnt stop there. Jan remembers proofreading the emails Sarah wrote when she was 14 to the X Games asking them why women couldnt compete. At events Sarah tracked down officials and demanded women be given a chance. For years she was turned down. “She would be crying in her goggles and venting her frustration and then she would say, Okay, I am going to go back and talk to them again. I could just imagine the tears filling up her goggles because she was so mad. And she had worked so hard at it.” Some super sad times I met Sarahs husband, Rory Bushfield, on his driveway. And in a matter of moments he had conviced me to put his bike in our little CBC rental car and shuttle him up a mountain so he could go for a ride. We obliiged.dddddddddddd “Its been two years since Sarah passed and I have gone through some super sad times but everything about Sarah is easy to smile about. She did it with grace, and she did it with class, pushed herself in the right places, skied half pipe like a champion, did so many first tricks for women that had never been done, you know, continued to push and continued to push.” Finally, in 2005, Sarah broke through. Her work paid off. Womens halfpipe got a spot in the world championships. Sarah won gold, and in her post-run interview she kept on pushing: “I am keeping my fingers crossed for the Olympics, we are only get better and I am hoping to get it in there.” But Sarah would never make it to the Olympics. On Jan. 19, 2012, Sarah Burke died after a crash while training in Utah. But in a way she won her fight. She got her sport into the Olympics. And so in Sochi, when the women drop into the halfpipe for the first time, Sarahs dream will have come true. Canadian slopestyle Spencer OBrien was a close friend of Burkes, and after her qualifying runs she showed me the little tape banner that still hangs on her board two years after Sarah died. Jan Phelan is making the long trip from Squamish to Sochi. She wants to stand near the halfpipe as the women compete and witness her daughters legacy. “If you had asked me, before this happened, what was the worst thing in my life would be, it would be to lose a child. To lose Sarah. I now know that there is one thing worse and that is to never have had her at all. Right. So what that tells me is to look at all these wonderful things she did accomplish and to enjoy them, let them bring you happiness.” ' ' '