Indy is looking to come out of a skid without the help of its leading scorer, Dylan Mares

As dicey as it might still be to stand on his surgically repaired right knee, it is simply excruciating for Dylan Mares to be sitting while his club, Indy Eleven, fights through the roughest of rough patches.

“It would be really tough, even if the team was doing well,” Mares told NASL.com. “It’s especially tough watching knowing I can’t help on the field.”

Mares, 23, an Indiana native, has missed his team’s last three games -- all losses -- after surgery to repair a torn lateral meniscus. He is still at least one, probably two weeks away from returning to training. The return of the attacking midfielder to the lineup remains subject to how his knee responds and how quickly he can regain his match fitness.

“Losing any player to injury is a challenge for a team, but losing Dylan is big loss as he had been productive in attack for the team all season,” Tim Regan, the club’s interim coach, said in an email message. “His growth as a player was showing every week, and we hope other players can step up and fill the void while he works his way back to full fitness.”

Though he has been out since playing 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw against the New York Cosmos on July 25, Mares remains Indy Eleven’s leading scorer with three goals and four assists (seven Indy players have each scored two goals).

Before the injury and after Indy fired Juergen Sommer as its coach in early June, the club seemed to be sailing along. Indy closed out the Spring Season under Regan with two wins and a tie to finish in fifth place, with an optimistic gaze to early July and the start of the Fall Season, which began with a draw at New York and a home victory against Carolina.

Next was a match at Ottawa. And perhaps the final score, 4-2, was a telltale sign of difficult times to come. They certainly were for Mares, a high school star in Indiana who played collegiately for three years at the University of Louisville (sitting out his sophomore season after tearing a ligament in his left knee) and one year at Indiana University.

“It’s kind of weird because with the ACL, I knew right away,” he said. “I went to cut and the knee just went out and I heard it. I couldn’t walk after it. With this one it’s completely different. After the Ottawa game, I was walking off the field and felt some pain, but it only lasted a few minutes, then I was back to a normal week in training leading up to New York game [on July 25 at Carroll Stadium, a 1-1 draw in which Mares scored a goal just before halftime]. I made a pass going across my body and something didn’t feel right.

“There was no swelling. I felt fine and continued to play, but in the middle of game – I’m really not a certain about the exact moment, I think I came down from a header – then it started to hurt more and after the game it swelled up.”

Mares was sent for a magnetic resonance imaging scan, which revealed the tear.

“In college I had the ACL operation and it was a six-month recovery,” he said. “I was on crutches and couldn’t walk on it for a long time. This was the complete opposite. I was walking on it coming out of the surgery. I think the whole procedure was like 30 minutes. Very quick, it’s probably the easiest surgery in terms of recovery.”

But it has still meant that Mares has been a spectator while Indy Eleven slowly began to sink in the Fall Season Standings. With this weekend off, Indy Eleven next plays on Wednesday when it hosts the Tampa Bay Rowdies on NASL Wednesday Night Soccer on ONE World Sports. With Mares sidelined, Indy has lost three straight games while scoring only one goal.

“I can be at practice and support and encourage the guys, but I can’t jump on the field,” Mares said. “You feel like, it’s tough to put into words, you feel almost like you know you can’t do anything for them and they can’t look at you. They have to figure it out as a team. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt I know we have other guys. It’s just unfortunate we’ve had a couple of bad games, but I think we’ve still played well. What’s been missing is that final pass to create the goal.”

In the absence of Mares, Regan has tinkered with his lineup, trying some new faces in the attacking midfield spot, but with none of the consistent success Mares brought to Indy Eleven in his second year with the club.

“I think when you have a player in a position for a while and he gets hurt, kind of what happened with Brad Ring, everyone has to switch their mentality and adapt to how someone else plays. I’d been in there and really no one else plays that position. So maybe tactics change. We had three guys there and they all play differently. Everyone we’ve put in there was also new to the team, which also makes it difficult. Everyone has gotten very familiar with the way I play and then have to adapt. It’s challenging. Most people don’t see it that way. They expect players to come in and do well.”

Mares said he has “a date in my head” targeted for his return, though for now he is keeping it to himself. Ideally, he wants to be back training in some form in a week to 10 days, working back into shape and match fitness.

“The only thing I can control is getting back in shape,” Mares said. “Then, whenever Tim feels comfortable, he will play me.”

For Indy Eleven, that time cannot come a moment too soon.