This weekend, Marcos Senna expects to get the starting nod for the New York Cosmos against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The start will mark his first appearance with the club since August 15th, and just his third appearance in 11 matches this Fall Championship season.

His absence has created quite a bit of intrigue amongst Cosmos fans who have been left in the dark over their star player’s absence.

Why has he been gone? That is a complicated answer that begins with his contract extension.

Senna left the club for Brazil shortly after the Spring Championship winning season. It was a move that was planned months in advance when the star midfielder had other plans about his playing career. His original deal with the Cosmos went through June of this year. Senna had no intention to re-sign with the club. However, like his time final years at Villarreal, that path was about to change.

“Before renewing my contract, I wasn’t going to stay with the club,” reveals Senna. “I was leaving in July [but] I spoke to the club, they asked that I stay, they made me a new offer, and after speaking to my family, I decided to stay.”

In deciding to stay, Senna still had to deal with some post-retirement planning back in his native Brazil. “As I was already getting ready to go to Brazil to sign off on my homes and other personal business, I was already going to go for just one week,” he explained. “But here is where the delay happened.”

Senna filed his visa paperwork in the United States and went off, fully expecting a prompt approval on his return to New York allowing him to join his team at the start of the Fall campaign. However, a filing technicality back in the States delayed his arrival by nearly a month.

“Here in the United States they actually apologized to me because there was a tax to pay of some sort and the issue went by. When they realized, three weeks had passed,” Senna said. “I was in Brazil three weeks — almost a month. Time went by, they apologized, and now I am here.”

Missing nearly two months worth of action, the fitness level of the seemingly ageless 39-year-old midfielder became a major concern upon his return.

“It’s not the same training and playing,” Senna notes. “The match I came on in the second half against San Antonio, I found myself in a very bad physical state. I told Gio ‘listen, I always do things right on the field and I don’t like coming in and taking the place of the young players who are doing well. I prefer to be preparing a few weeks.”

So Senna benched himself and went on a rigorous training routine to return to full fitness.

“I was training two-a-days for a few weeks and it went well,” he explained. “During the day I would do cardio and physical work and in the afternoon, the sessions were mostly physical in nature. Now, I find myself in phenomenal condition. I must be around 80-90% which is good enough to get back into the game.”

Meanwhile, the Cosmos moved on without Senna, digging themselves out of a mid-year funk and going the entirety of August undefeated.

“That is a positive,” Senna said of the team’s results. “The team played well. They aren’t just their big name players — Marcos Senna, Carlos Mendes, Raul or Roversio — but the team has grown a lot and the players are the future of the club.

“I won’t be here next year and others may not be either, I don’t know, but the guys need the experience to continue to grow.”

With a string of positive results behind the club — and the consternation over his visa and fitness issues finally at an end — Senna is ready to jump into the fray once more against heritage rival, Tampa Bay Rowdies.

“I find myself ready to play,” he said. “I kept thinking that I need to get better but now I am perfectly ready to play.”

The Cosmos take on Tampa Bay at Al Lang Stadium this Saturday evening.