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Sandy • Jeff Cassar has yet to be able to field his preferred first-team lineup in 2015. We enter July tomorrow. And it doesn't seem like he'll be afforded the opportunity any time soon. Because injuries and national-team call-ups continue to thin Real Salt Lake tremendously this season. On Tuesday morning, Cassar provided updates on players dealing with various issues.

» Jamison Olave: The 34-year-old center back re-injured his quad in training late last week. Cassar said Tuesday Olave "took a big step back. I think it's going to be a while before we see Jamison out on the field." At halftime of RSL's 2-2 draw with Columbus Saturday, Olave was seen walking with a heavy limp. Olave is out indefinitely. On Monday night's OnFrame, RSL vice president of communications Trey Fitz-Gerald estimated Olave could be out as long as mid-September.

» Chris Schuler: Over two months after undergoing successful knee surgery to repair torn meniscus in his knee, Schuler played 65 minutes for Real Monarchs on Saturday on the road against Arizona United SC. Schuler trained fully Tuesday and Cassar said Schuler's progress has him available for first-team selection. "He's not 90-minute fit," Cassar added. "Especially when these [U.S. Open Cup] games now can go 120 minutes, you have to be smart — hopefully we're in a great position to either close out the game or maybe we bring him on. Now he's an option and he's a good option."

» Justen Glad: The 18-year-old RSL academy product started back-to-back matches vs. Sporting Kansas City on June 21 and at New York Red Bulls on June 24. But a quadricep tweak suffered last Wednesday kept him out of Saturday's 2-2 draw against the Crew. Cassar ruled Glad out for Wednesday's Open Cup match with the Timbers. "We don't have chances to have guys with lingering injuries," Cassar said. "They have to get healthy and then stay healthy. What we can't have is in and out."

» Devon Sandoval: This came as a bit of surprise. But it makes sense with Cassar's explanation. Sandoval picked up a minor injury recently, which led to the staff's decision to put Sebastian Jaime in the central role up top, rather than out wide. Cassar didn't seem concerned about Sandoval's knock. "He's got a little bit of an injury right now that doesn't have him at 100 percent," Cassar said.

Cassar spoke in-depth Tuesday about how the staff and players plan to once again address the loss of several key players during the summer months due to international duty. Here's what he said regarding young players and back-ups feeling pressure to piece together a winning streak as RSL is lower in the table than in previous years:

"I hope that they feel the pressure's on all the time. Because you can never relax in this league. What I think they need to realize is they need consistent performances now. It can't be just come in and play well for a game. It's going to have to be now, play consistently with a lot of games in short days. So they're going to have to take care of their bodies more than they have before, prepare both on the field and doing video because a lot of these guys haven't when against them, they don't know the other team's tendencies, so positional video yesterday, so we're trying to do cram sessions in a shot period of time, but what we'll really need is consistency."

***

Has any player in any league gone from No. 2 on SportsCenter's Not Top 10 to No. 2 on the show's Top 10? RSL's Luke Mulholland did, and in a span of six days. When the 26-year-old midfielder collided with the post in last Sunday's 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City, social media took hold of the hilarity of the moment.

Mulholland was tracking a ball and skying to clear it in case it plopped down and into the net, but did not see the post. His collision had its own dedicated link on Deadspin before coming in on SportsCenter's Not Top 10.

Six days later, Mulholland started the free kick that would take social media by storm. A three-pass sequence that led to a simple tap-in for forward Olmes Garcia. The trick play was named No. 2 on SportsCenter's weekend wrap-up Monday morning.

"It was a big week for me It was a big week," Mulholland quipped Tuesday. "Did well to redeem myself. It was a good goal that we scored. Very proud of the team of working on those set pieces and it finally coming off. Means a little bit extra for you."

Asked if he got any flak from friends or folks back home in England for his now-notorious post battle, Mulholland nodded.

"Plenty of messages just to remind me to be aware of the post and all that stuff," he said. "Maybe even put padding on the post next time. All in good fun, though. I'm glad that that's old news now and we can forget about it and move on."

Asked how he plans on following up on that set-piece goal Saturday against Columbus, Mulholland said, "I'm going to have to jump on FIFA tonight and work on some. I don't know we can try that one again just yet. We'll see. Maybe we'll just ask Javier [Morales] to whip a free kick into the top corner again. That'll do for me."

***

The Portland Timbers are riding high. Winners of six of their last seven across all competitions — including Sunday's 4-1 smashing of rival Seattle at Providence Park — the Timbers enter Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday shouldering more momentum than any team in the league.

"4-1 against your derby team is as good of a response as you can ask for," Mulholland said. "I'm sure the confidence is sky-high right now."

Right back Tony Beltran said he's seen Portland midfielder Darlington Nagbe turn it up a notch in recent weeks, evidenced by Nagbe's stellar goal Sunday against the Sounders.

"You saw last game when Nagbe's on, he can be a difference-maker, he can be one of the best players in the leagu," Beltran said. I've heard that from a number of people who have played with him and obviously I've seen it playing against him."

What's exactly led to the turnaround? Former RSL center back Nat Borchers weighs in.

"I've been thinking about that a lot and I feel like early in the season, those first 10 games, I feel like we had really good performances and we just weren't able to finish or weren't able to get that defensive stop, but we just weren't making that final play," he said. "Recently, I think we've been doing that, so the foundation has been there for this team in terms of we've got really good quality players."

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani