Striker Drogba one of four players set to return for Montreal Impact

MONTREAL — The Montreal Impact have a clean bill of health and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

As the race for post-season play in Major League Soccer heats up, four previously injured players will be available for Montreal when Eastern Conference rival Orlando City SC visits Saputo Stadium on Wednesday.

Striker Didier Drogba, who was day-to-day with a hamstring injury, will be in the lineup. Also healthy and ready to play are midfielders Patrice Bernier, Lucas Ontivero and Harry Shipp.

“The whole team is healthy,” head coach Mauro Biello said Tuesday. “Except for those on international duty, everybody is available (Wednesday).

“This may be a team record. I think this is the first time all year all of our players are healthy. It makes choosing my starters a little more difficult. But my message to my players is always to be ready to play.”

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Drogba was pulled early in the second half of Montreal’s 1-0 win at Toronto on Aug. 27 due to a sore hamstring. Bernier missed the last three weeks with a fractured foot, Ontivero has missed most of the summer with a calf injury and Shipp was an unused substitute in the last four games due to a groin sprain.

“I haven’t done too much in a while except for therapy,” said Shipp, who last played Aug. 6 against Houston. “But the fitness will come. For me it’s about being mentally tough and getting used to the speed of the game.”

Also in the lineup will be Calum Mallace, who was sent off against Toronto FC but saw his red card rescinded this week. The midfielder was shown a straight red after a colliding with Toronto’s Steven Beitashour.

Mallace and the Impact felt the decision was too harsh, and Biello was fined for criticizing the referee’s decision.

“Obviously I felt a little hard done by,” said Mallace. “It was just a matter of time before they overturned it, so it feels good. It wasn’t violent. I didn’t try to hit the guy. It was just a collision.”

The only two players unavailable for Montreal’s game against Orlando are defender Ambroise Oyongo (Cameroon) and midfielder Johan Venegas (Costa Rica), both on international duty.

Montreal (9-7-10) is currently fifth in the Eastern Conference with 37 points, six points ahead of Orlando City (6-7-13). With eight games remaining in the season, Kaka and the Lions are on the outside looking in, hoping to make up some ground and close the gap with a solid road result.

A win would put Orlando in the sixth and final playoff position in the East.

“We’ve got nothing to lose,” Orlando City defender Seb Hines said on the team’s website. “We can go into every game and try to win and put pressure on the other team.”

The odds may be stacked against the visitors, though, as striker Cyle Larin (Canada) and midfielder Kevin Molino (Trinidad and Tobago) are on international duty. Together, Larin, from Brampton, Ont., and Molino have scored 22 of Orlando’s 41 goals this year.

Kaka is third on the team’s scoring list with six goals.

The Lions have struggled on the road this season with a 1-5-6 mark away from Camping World Stadium. That doesn’t bode well for a team playing four of five games on the road this month.

Notes: MLS commissioner Don Garber will be in attendance at Saputo Stadium. … This is the second of three matches between Montreal and Orlando this season. The third game goes Oct. 2 in Orlando.

Kelsey Patterson, The Canadian Press