Portland Timbers captain Will Johnson is expected to play another match with T2 this Sunday when the club takes on Orange County Blues FC at 6 p.m. at Providence Park.

Johnson, who is recovering from a broken leg, played his first minutes since the injury in T2's 2-0 win at Arizona United SC last Saturday. Johnson played 63 minutes with T2, the Timbers' USL team.

"One of the reasons we put him in that game is he could kind of manage the game a little bit in terms of he doesn't need to always put his foot in every tackle and he can kind of slowly gain some confidence," Timbers coach Caleb Porter said.

While Porter said that Johnson would definitely be competing with T2 Sunday, he did not rule out the possibility of Johnson also being in the Timbers' 18 for Saturday's match against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

"He could be available for the bench, but if he's available for the bench, then we need to know he's ready to basically play if we get an injury with a holding mid early in the game," Porter said. "So, those are the discussions and the decisions that we'll make and we'll make the right ones."

Porter also said the Timbers are still deciding whether midfielder Diego Valeri, who is recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, will be healthy enough to make his debut against Vancouver on Saturday.

Porter said that the Timbers had always targeted the Vancouver game for Valeri's return, but would need to evaluate Valeri this week before making any decisions. Valeri led the Timbers with 11 goals and 14 assists in 2014.

If Valeri plays Saturday, he will likely enter the match as a late game substitute.

"Obviously, it's another week of full training, so we'll make that decision at the end of the week," Porter said. "Vancouver was always the game that we had targeted (for Valeri to be ready)."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg