It was a day of mixed news from FC Dallas’ final practice before hopping a flight to the nation’s capital in advance of tomorrow night’s match with DC United at RFK Stadium. On the positive news front, FCD saw both Carlos Rodriguez and Ricardo Villar return to training and it looks like both will be in the first 11 against the Black-and-Red. Thursday also marked the second practice for flank midfielder Brek Shea after returning from Olympic qualifying earlier in the week.

Villar went through the full yet abbreviated session at the No. 10 spot and did so with no issue. “We got him padded up a little bit to protect the ribs but he’s a very, very important player for us, so we wanted to make sure that we got him back out there still capable of doing what we hope he can do,” Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman said. “Whether he starts or whether he goes the full game, that’ll all be determined closer to game time.”

The FCD gaffer also offered a quick appraisal of how he thought Rodriguez did in his first session back with the club. “A little bit tired, the same thing with Brek, still trying to get, probably, over the emotional disappointments plus the fatigue, the flying, all that kind of stuff,” Hyndman said.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, one player who did not practice was speedy Colombian Fabian Castillo, who spent the entire session on the sideline with his left knee wrapped. After an encouraging practice on Wednesday, he was not able to go this morning and has been ruled out for Friday.

“Yeah, it is precautionary. He’s not traveling,” Hyndman said.

Center back George John participated in part of the session before having to take himself out due to an injury of his own, one that sounds all too familiar.

“Yeah, there’s a bit of a strained hamstring from yesterday. So, we’ll be making final decision on him [about if he travels or not],” Hyndman said. “At the same time, this may give Matt Hedges a great opportunity to get on the field.”

Forward Scott Sealy also continues to work on the side, but there isn’t a timeframe as to when he might be able to return for Dallas.

“Scott’s really frustrated and disappointed. He went through the whole preseason with two-a-days and not a beep of a problem,” Hyndman said. “And then as soon as we go to Orlando, it must have been that flight coming in from San Jose to Orlando. He got out there in training and tweaked a hamstring. Now it’s tweaking again, so it’s really been frustrating for him and for us because especially in the last few weeks, we’ve really needed some extra help. But I think what we’re going to do is sometimes a player accelerates and they pull a hamstring. Him it’s been more the deceleration, trying to slow down and all of a sudden, the hamstring is unable. So we’ve got to be really careful how we do our rehab to see if we can get him back.”

And 2010 MLS MVP David Ferreira went to his first doctor’s appointment on Wednesday and is now scheduled for another visit as FCD tries to figure out exactly why the Colombian playmaker’s recovery from an Achilles injury suffered during preseason has come to a screeching halt.

“He had a doctor appointment yesterday and I think it went well. We’re doing another doctor appointment because we wanted to have another opportunity to see another doctor as well,” Hyndman said.