COMMERCE CITY — For the first half of the season, U.S. national team midfielder Jermaine Jones was one of the most exciting players on the Rapids’ roster, but he has not played since July 4 because of a knee injury. Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni concedes the injury has taken longer to heal than anyone expected.

“People’s recovery times, people’s body shapes, people’s age, how they receive treatment, there’s one billion different variables that go into this,” Mastroeni said Tuesday. “According to the objective standards that hold true for this injury, well, this is the exception … He’s got a little bit of pain. I’m saying, ‘Why do you want to set him back?’ If he’s got pain, pain is the human metric you use to say, ‘I’m not ready yet.'”