Santino Quaranta, Devon McTavish Return From Concussions For D.C. United

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the team has already seen three former players lose their careers to concussions, but it remains true that DC United seems to take concussions more seriously than other teams. Not necessarily too seriously, just more seriously.

If Devon McTavish played for another MLS team, his preseason concussion might not have even kept him from missing any part of the regular season. If Brandon Barklage played quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, he probably would have only missed one game. Its good to be cautious, but it just seems like United has been playing by a different set of rules as compared to the rest of the league.

Regardless, we received a nice bit of good news earlier this week with the report that McTavish and Santino Quaranta have returned to training, and will be listed as questionable for Saturday's game against Toronto FC. They join two other recently concussed players - Barklage and Blake Brettschneider - on the active roster.

Its a shame this couldn't have happened sooner, or else Quaranta would be first in line to fill in for Andy Najar as The Phenom serves a red card suspension on Saturday. Quaranta probably won't be ready to start, but he could make the bench and possibly serve as a second half substitute on the right wing for either Barklage or Austin da Luz.

The bigger question though might come at the top of the formation, where Ben Olsen might be tempted to leave Dwayne De Rosario as a withdrawn forward after his two goal performance against the San Jose Earthquakes last week. Yeah, he'll be tempted, but it won't happen. United brought DeRo to D.C. to play in the midfield, and that's where he'll play when captain Josh Wolff is healthy.

The return of Wolff and Charlie Davies will push another formerly concussed player - Brettschneider - back to the bench.