Tobin Heath is progressing in her recovery from a stomach illness that has kept her out of preseason training thus far for the Atlanta Beat, The Equalizer has learned. The No. 1-overall draft pick in the 2010 WPS Draft did not travel with her teammates to Florida for the week-long training trip.
There is a small chance that she could join the team in Florida later in the trip, but she is expected to begin training by the time the team returns from Florida, which will be just before Atlanta’s March 28 showdown with Heath’s former team, the University of North Carolina.
Atlanta Beat General Manager Shawn McGee expects Heath to be 100 percent healthy by opening day and said that the team has been cautious to throw her into action too early even though she has been itching to get on the field.
The stomach illness prevented Heath from attending the Algarve Cup, which the United States won, in late February and early March. She has been dealing with it for almost a month now and it is supposedly suffering from a similar stomach illness (specifics beyond that vague information are unknown) that kept Megan Rapinoe out of action for the entire 20-day U.S. Women’s National Team training camp in January. Rapinoe replaced Heath on the U.S.’ Algarve Cup roster.
Atlanta opens the regular season on April 11 on the road against the Philadelphia Independence.
