VANCOUVER — Vancouver Whitecaps defender Brad Rusin insists he’s fully healthy again and ready to get back in the lineup.

So that the black sleeve on his once strained left calf, just window dressing?

“Just wearing the sleeve,” he said Wednesday with a bit of a sheepish laugh, “I guess, mentally just to make me feel a little bit better. But, I’m 100 per cent, so I’m ready to go.”

That’s good news for the Caps and their plug-and-play back line that has seen almost as many four-man combinations as goals conceded. That latter number is up to a troubling 24 in 15 games, fourth worst in MLS.

But, interestingly, the Caps toyed this week with having Rusin, who started eight straight games at left centre back for injured captain Jay DeMerit earlier in the season before he himself was sidelined, playing a holding midfielder role Saturday when Vancouver faces D.C. United at RFK Stadium in Washington (4 p.m. Pacific, on Sportsnet Pacific, Team 1410).

It’s all part of more thinking and tinkering by head coach Martin Rennie. He is apparently going to make good on a promise to give 36-year-old right fullback Y.P. Lee time off during the long regular season to ensure the Korean is physically and mentally sharp late in the campaign and into the post-season. Lee was excused from practice this week, so almost certainly won’t play in Washington and perhaps not even in Kansas City next Wednesday.

Youngster Greg Klazura started for Lee in New York on June 1. He was tagged with an own goal in the second half and had to depart moments later because of cramping. A week later in Seattle, he struggled as an injury substitute at left back, being whistled for a penalty after taking down a Sounders player in the box.

Rennie said this week he would be comfortable using Klazura again, but midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, who played right fullback for Lee in a 0-0 draw in Montreal in an Amway Canadian championship game in May, practised there Wednesday.

If Reo-Coker, who played as a holding midfielder against Chivas USA a week ago, plays at fullback on Saturday, that could open up a position for the six-foot-four Rusin, who has played some holding midfield in his career, including in that game in Montreal.

“Today, I was holding midfield, but ultimately (I’ll play) anywhere I can to help the team out,” the Indiana-born Rusin, a first-year Cap signed out of Denmark in the off-season, said Wednesday.

Honduran international Johnny Leveron has moved comfortably into the left centre back spot, with Carlyle Mitchell, called back from Edmonton FC, where he was on loan, filling in the last two games at right centre back for the injured Andy O’Brien (hamstring).

A Reo-Coker-Mitchell-Leveron-Jordan Harvey back line against Washington would be the first time that foursome has played together.

“I’m up for the challenge,” said Reo-Coker. “Hopefully, I can add a bit more security to the back four, with Johnny and Mitchell being very young guys, still learning the game. We need to tighten up defensively, we know that.”