Bloemfontein, South Africa - United States coach Bob Bradley has confirmed that central defender Carlos Bocanegra may play against Spain in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup set for later Wednesday.

"I can say that Carlos has been in full training," said the US boss about the team's captain. "Obviously we still have to test him a little bit more and see what that means.

"But he certainly is an option in the game," he said when looking ahead to stopping Spain's vaunted attack.

The Rennes man, formerly with Fulham and Chicago Fire, is a key figure for the States in the centre of defence with Oguchi Onyewu. But he has been out injured with a hamstring strain since a June 6 World Cup qualifier against Honduras.

Filling in at the back has been Jay DeMerit, who plays for Watford.

"Carlos is the captain and big part of the team, so it was hard to lose him right before the tournament," said Onyewu, who is also known as "Gooch."

"Fortunately Jay has stepped in and played well. He's had a good three good games here."

The 20-year-old drew praise from Bradley as well earlier.

"They have been solid in the back," he said. "The understanding between Jay and Gooch at times is such that one will drop too far off and they're not always perfectly in sync, but you can see the understanding getting better."

Bocanegra captained the national team for the first time in a meaningful way at the successful 2007 Gold Cup campaign that qualified the side for the Confederations Cup. He trained with the team on a cold Tuesday night in Bloemfontein.

Bradley also said that Everton's Tim Howard would return to goal after Aston Villa's Brad Guzman started their third group match against Egypt. (dpa)