Yet another bizarre chapter in the Fire's checkered history of Designated Player stumblings was written today as General Manager Nelson Rodriguez addressed the absence of Gilberto from training on Monday. There is no apparent timetable for his return. Rodriguez told media during a conference call that the club was not in the process of buying out Gilberto's contract but the player is continuing his personal leave of absence from the team.

"Prior to our last game we had indicated that we had provided Gilberto some personal time to help him with some personal matters." explained Rodriguez. "Over the course of the break I checked in with Gilberto again. At that time he still indicated to me that he was not in a state of mind that was his best. It has left me to draw the conclusion that, for the moment we need to continue to try to work with him as a person. Our club's focus needs to be singular. As a result, we will work with Gilberto individually to try to get him back in to a form that can help us, but the rest of the team must work collectively with our focus on the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match on the 15th and our quest to join Maccabi Los Angeles and Bethlehem Steel as the only five-time winners of that trophy, and also our focus to make the MLS playoffs through the balance of this season."

The remainder of the questions for Rodriguez centered around Gilberto's absence and what that could mean for the team this season, along with an update on Michael de Leeuw's arrival. Here is the full run-down of the call:

Rodriguez on the possibility of Gilberto returning

"Our preference has always been for Gilberto to be scoring goals for our team. That's always been our preference. That's something I expressed to his agent not long ago. There is a human side to this, and a professional side to it. They get blurred a little bit in this situation as well. What has to become priority is the team. It's the guys in the locker room who are willing, able, and ready, and with pride to defend our colors and our shield. We owe it to that group to give our best attention and our most focus to them, and that's what we're doing. At the same time, we'll see what we can do to help Gilberto."

Rodriguez on the potential "buy-out" of Gilberto's remaining contract

"We've not had that discussion with Gilberto or his representative. Every option always has to be on the table. At some point, if we can't get him to be productive and scoring goals for us we have to look at anything that avails itself to us, or that we we create for ourselves."

Rodriguez on reports out of Brazil that Gilberto was offered to his former club

"We have not had any discussions with any club in Brazil at all. Gilberto has from time to time, expressed a desire to return to Brazil and play in Brazil. It's unclear whether that's now or the end of his contract in the future but we have not spoken to any club in Brazil about Gilberto's services."

Rodriguez on the possible ramifications of Gilberto not wanting to return

"If Gilberto doesn't return or he chooses not fulfill the obligations of his contract then we will have to take that up with Major League Soccer and the Major League Soccer Player's Association. We'll have to see if that moment comes. Obviously, if he is no longer a member of our club and removed from our roster then we can avail ourselves to all acquired team salary budget space and any mechanisms to replace his services."

Rodriguez on whether Gilberto's state of mind has been affected by off-field or soccer related issues

"I want to be fair to Gilberto, in that it's somewhat personal. It would be difficult to imagine however, that the fact that a proud goalscorer hadn't found the net wasn't in some way upset and disappointed and affected by his lack of performance on the field. If there is anything else, he has not made us aware of that but we are a club that prides itself in trying to be givers and trying to be supportive. I think Pauno has done a really good job of continuously playing him and giving him the opportunity to perform on the field. I think we should all be respectful of the Gilberto the man, and allow him to try to work through this."

Rodriguez on Gilberto's whereabouts

"He is in Chicago. We are expecting him for his individualized training this week."

Rodriguez on how patience will be afforded before a decision is made

"A lot of that is driven in part by the team. Gilberto is a very talented player. When he gets on the right side of scoring goals he can be positively streaky and carry a team. He has demonstrated that in his past in limited time in MLS and in his past in Brazil. Pauno and I have spoken to some guys on the team and I think that they are all in agreement that we all need to focused. We need to eliminate and mitigate distractions. We really are targeting the Open Cup as something that is very important to us. We still have a belief that we will be playing meaningful games come October. There's a balance though. I think that we have to be very patient for the man because there's a human who is experiencing some form of distress. We should all be patient and supportive of (him), but then there's the professional and that's where it can be blurry. We always have to put the good of the whole team ahead of any individual."

Rodriguez on whether the situation has become a distraction

"I think that the group has managed it well. I think that Pauno has managed it well. I think as long as Gilberto is doing his thing to get better, we can all move forward in a positive sense. It's my job to also be prepared should it comes to pass if he does not return for us that we are prepared to fill that role with another player. Our normal course of operation is constantly working our pipelines of players, whether within the league or in the international marketplace. For the moment, I would say that it's been manageable and we aim it to be. We have a strong locker room. We have guys that are very focused and very committed. He has friends in the locker room, so there are guys who are concerned about him and worry about him but ultimately we all know that you get judged by wins and losses and not by friendship. That's where we need to go."

Rodriguez on de Leeuw's arrival

"Michael is scheduled to receive his visa in Holland mid-week. We are working toward an expectation that he will arrive at the end of this week. He is not eligible to play until after the Fourth of July, when the MLS secondary transfer window opens. At that point we expect everything to be in order. This will give Michael the better part of the month to get acclimated and we'll be excited to greet him. Pending any unforeseen circumstances, Michael should be with us the end of this week."

Rodriguez on the possibility of de Leeuw taking a DP tag

"We'll make those decision on an annualized basis at the start of every year. For 2016, he is considered a TAM player. A player where we used Targeted Allocation Money to acquire his service. At the present moment, that's all we're considering for him."

Paunovic on preparation for the US Open Cup

"We are preparing lessons learned over the week off. I think it is very important, after five months working together, to have that week off where all the players can have time to change and refocus and re-energize as we continue into the second phase of the season. We also gave them individually designed fitness plans in order to maintain and to come back in the best possible shape. We did tests today where we can determine their fitness levels and we are evaluating that. I can tell you (after) that evaluation that we are very satisfied how they came back. It was very helpful and helped everyone to refresh and be ready to come back and continue the next phase of the season. The next game is very important for us in the Open Cup. We believe, like Nelson said before, that it's a very important competition for the club and we want to be the best we can be. We want to do our best to win this Cup and we will do everything in order to do well and compete. We are taking this week as a mini-preseason in order to prepare for the next game. We are going to have a scrimmage this Thursday where we will play against the PDL team and that team will be helped, we'll have players for the first team who will play for the PDL so we can balance the competitiveness and the level between both teams. It is going to be at the stadium on Thursday and it's also a very important point of evaluation for us, to see where we stand before we play that Open Cup game against Indy Eleven."

Paunovic in plans without Gilberto available

"Nelson addressed everything and I want to take advantage of this opportunity to say that I agree and support the decision perfectly, and I think he explained it very well where we stand. I will just, we'll move on (with) what we have. We have guys who can perform. We proved that during the season. Only one player hasn't played this season. It's Patrick McLain. All others were involved. They're committed, as I always say but they can also see that they have opportunities. This is the competitiveness that we need in a team. Any given moment, everyone knows that they can step up for the team and play. We move on and we'll see who can take his place. Still we'll see how things will happen in the future."

Paunovic on John Goossens' status

"Goossens is doing very good. He is in the final stages of recovery. This week is very important for him. We'll see how he tolerates the next level of fitness and effort that he has to put from his side in order to get to the level of the rest of the guys. If that goes well, we believe that next week he can start full-go and start working with the rest of the team."

Paunovic on Rodrigo Ramos' status

"He went through concussion protocol after the game and during this week he was treated by our medical staff and athletic trainer. Today is the last day of that protocol and everything seems to be fine. He should be from tomorrow full-go and we are very happy to have him back."

Paunovic on Harrington's status

"Harrington is also in the last stage of his recovery from the groin strain that he had."

Paunovic on Collin Fernandez's status

"Collin, unfortunately had a setback for him. He was called for National Team of Peru Under 20's but before he got there he said that he doesn't feel that his ankle is good enough so he decided to stay and do the treatments during this week. We will provide him all the help that he needs in order to recover."

Paunovic on the strength of the line-up against Indy Eleven

"It's a very important competition for us and a very important game in front of us. We will play with our best available guys. We want to win that game. It's an important competition and we will do our best to win the competition."

Paunovic on losing momentum after the team's best overall game before the break

"I think we are building that momentum and it's going well. Everything is on us and it depends on how we prepare and how we handle the situation that we have in the games that we have to manage and win. That will determine how well that momentum (builds). I think it is growing and I think it's very encouraging to see the team having that improvement in the last weeks. We'll try hard to perform even better."

Paunovic on the focus in training this week

"From the very first start we wanted to integrate our methodology of preparing and training. It's the same thing. We're working on everything. We will work on our fitness and our style. We'll work on things in the game that we have to improve. We have to maintain all of those levels very high in order to compete well. There are some phases that we have to improve more. I think we did well last week. Now it's very important to maintain that level and improve it."

Paunovic on the training plan for de Leeuw

"He played his last game on May 18 and since then we have been in contact with him, especially since it was announced that he was going to be the new signing. We gave him an individual plan where he has to maintain. First of all we want him to rest. First of all we want him to recover well from the long season. He played 30 games and 2,500 minutes, which means that he played almost ninety minutes every game and that's a huge amount of load for him. We want him first to rest and then recover and then we have a plan for him. We are treating that as a preseason for him as he was used to having in Europe. We will have the opportunity to involve him in our environment, meet the guys, and work on his fitness. The next five weeks he will be ready to play. We believe that we will prepare him well so that he can have the rest of the season to perform and he can be an important player for our team."

Paunovic on Khaly Thiam's progress

"He' very well integrated in the group. I think that he decided to stay in Chicago during the week off. He wanted to meet the City. His wife wanted to spend time together. He was also coming to the stadium. He's a very good professional. He likes soccer and he has that soccer lifestyle that Nelson and I are always preaching for in order to be a very good and very competitive soccer player. I think he's doing great. You can see his good attitude always in the training but we still believe that he needs adjustment and carefully we will make go though that process of adjustment and adaptation to this league and to the new team that he's facing. I believe that he will be very important in he future."

Paunovic on areas of focus for the team

"The month of July is going to be a very, very important month for us. We have to engage with the rest of the teams. We believe because of the schedule we are right now in a situation where we are looking at everyone above us but we have to also look carefully and very close to statistics. We are one of the teams that have just played 12 games and it's a big difference with some teams who have 15 or 16 games (played) right now. That gap is what we have to fulfill but we are also very aware that gap at some moment will be filled and we have to be successful. We have to take those games in a very competitive way and win those games."