Pat Brennan | Cincinnati Enquirer

The Enquirer/Alexa Philippou

Shae Combs

Futbol Club Cincinnati is enjoying a relatively slow period in its schedule as it won't have a scheduled midweek match this week for the first time in a month.

The players and staff will need all the rest they can get because off-the-field work continues for the club. They're also about to launch back into a busy stretch of calendar that will see the club play two matches in three days.

The second of those matches will be played against Valencia CF, a famed club from La Liga, the top soccer league in Spain.

After an off day Sunday to enjoy and recuperate from Saturday's 3-2 road win against archrival Louisville City FC, FC Cincinnati reconvened at the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium for a Monday training session.

Here are the newsiest notes from the FC Cincinnati camp Monday:

TYLER POLAK FIGHTING FOOT SPRAIN

FC Cincinnati answered many questions during its 3-2 road win against Louisville City FC, but one question still looming over Cincinnati is the health status of defender Tyler Polak following an injury he picked up early in the game.

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A Sunday evaluation revealed Polak suffered a foot sprain, FC Cincinnati head coach Alan Koch said Monday, adding the team still isn't certain of the extent of the injury.

"That could be varying different levels, so they put him in a (walking) boot, precautionary-wise," Koch said. "He's going to check in with the doctors again Wednesday... We're just being very, very careful with him and then by Wednesday – we have Wednesday off – by Wednesday night we'll have a pretty good assessment of where we're at."

Polak was subbed off in the 26th minute following a hard tackle that left him in obvious pain and signaling for medical attention. Head FC Cincinnati trainer Aaron Powell quickly attended to Polak and then signaled Polak's night was finished.

There's no indication yet that Polak will miss time due to the injury, but his possible absence would be a considerable loss for Saturday's league match against the Harrisburg City Islanders.

Polak is one of the team leaders in minutes played this season (1,325) and has started 15 of the 16 games he's appeared in.

FC CINCINNATI DONE DEALING THIS TRANSFER WINDOW? MAYBE NOT

The international transfer window opened July 1 and runs through Aug. 31. FC Cincinnati's already been busy making moves – but are they done?

It's possible the club could pull the trigger on a few more personnel decisions in the coming days and weeks, Koch told The Enquirer Monday.

"Part of building a team and building a club is working with the pieces of the puzzle," Koch said. "Some pieces fit and some pieces don't fit, so we've made a couple tweaks to the group as we move forward and we firmly believe those tweaks have been for the better. Obviously, a couple moves that we made moving players out allowed us to bring in three players who we think are going to be three major pieces of our puzzle.

"We're not going to make any drastic decisions as we move forward, but could we make one or two more changes? Yeah, probably. We're very open and transparent with all of our players. If they're going to play, we want them to play. We want to embrace them, we want their full support. If they're not going to play, we'll hopefully get with them to a place where they can play, but if that's not the case, then it means trying to help a player move to where it might be a better environment, definitely support that... We never want to hold a player here who is maybe not getting opportunities they deserve."

The three departed players Koch referenced included Derek Luke, Daryl Fordyce and Victor Mansaray.

The three new pieces Koch mentioned included loanee Kyle Greig, who joined FC Cincinnati last week via a loan deal from the Vancouver Whitecaps FC organization, midfielder Kevin Schindler and defender Sem de Wit.

FC Cincinnati's now rostering 28 players. Per USL rules, the team can roster up to 30 players. Of those, 27 players can be listed on the active day-of-game roster and 18 players will dress for games.

A NEW FACE AT TRAINING

Schindler, the newly-contracted midfielder and former player for Werder Bremen in Germany's top soccer league (Bundesliga), made his training debut with Cincinnati at Monday's training session.

"Being on turf is obviously new for Kevin," Koch said. "Being in the heat is also a bit different, but he looked good for a first training session but it takes time for players to come into new environments and get comfortable, understand the philosophy and get to know your teammates names and all of that."

Schindler and Greig both traveled with FC Cincinnati to the team's Saturday match at Louisville – an experience Koch said will help Schindler and Greig assimilate into the group.

De Wit, the third player added to FC Cincinnati's roster last week, is scheduled to arrive in Cincinnati Wednesday and make his debut at Thursday's training session.

JOSU UP FOR USL POTW

Josu Currais, who came on in the 29th minute of Saturday's match against Louisville for the injured Polak, is up for USL Player of the Week honors for his effort in the 3-2 win.

Josu cleared a would-have-been goal off the line, assisted on defender Harrison Delbridge's 55th minute goal and helped set into motion the play that resulted on Danni Konig's 77th minute goal, which served as the eventual game winner.

The Player of the Week award, along with the USL's Team of the Week, will be announced Tuesday.