Courtesy Regina Leader Post:

Matt Dominguez is receiving plenty of reps, but not the type he would prefer.

Questions about the condition of Dominguez’s surgically repaired left knee have become repetitious. On Monday — precisely nine months after the Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver injured his left medial collateral ligament — the inquiries persisted.

“People want to know,” Dominguez said after the Roughriders practised on Taylor Field. “Everybody wants to get the scoop. They’re saying, ‘When are you coming back?’

“I’ll be ready to go that first game. I don’t see any reason why I won’t be ready in two weeks or three weeks to play the first game.”

The Roughriders, cast in the unaccustomed role of defending Grey Cup champions, are to open the regular season June 28 against the Edmonton Eskimos on Taylor Field. The ever-optimistic Dominguez is upbeat about the possibility of playing in that game, even though he has yet to participate in live training-camp workouts.

However, head coach Ken Miller sounds a cautionary note.

“I think good sense would dictate that we probably don’t plan on him for that game, but I think maybe the second game or the third game would be a good time for him to start,” Miller said.

So is Dominguez being overly optimistic in citing June 28 as a return date?

“I’ll just be perfectly honest with you,” Miller said. “In the last 10 days, he has increased his strength by five per cent. He’s still 11 per cent away. Dominguez is pretty close. For him to get that 11 per cent, who knows if he’s going to be able to get that? And then he really needs to be able to operate in our offence and practise. That’s the thing. If it’s strong enough, then he needs the practice reps in addition to that.”

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