When St. Louis University midfielder Mike Roach hurt his ankle Sept. 20, he was told he would be out four to six weeks.

On Monday, three weeks and one day later, he was back at practice. He will be in the lineup today for SLU's game against 13th-ranked Charlotte at 7 p.m. at Hermann Stadium.

"I'm a pretty quick healer," Roach said.

For Roach, the ankle sprain, bone contusion, and messed-up Achilles tendon he suffered against Akron seem barely an inconvenience. When he was a junior at Chaminade in 2005 he broke the second vertebra in his neck in a car crash and came back to be the Post-Dispatch's high school player of the year as a senior.

Four years later, he shows no effects of the injury. Even he is surprised by that development.

"It's unbelievable," he said.

A win tonight would be a big step in SLU's recovery. The NCAA released its RPI numbers for men's soccer earlier this week, and SLU (7-4, 2-0) is at No. 43, well out of range for an NCAA at-large berth. Charlotte (7-1-3, 1-0-1), at No. 23, is the only school left on SLU's schedule with a better RPI, so if SLU is going to move up, it needs to win today.

Even then, SLU's only sure way to the NCAA tournament is by getting the automatic bid that comes from winning the Atlantic 10 tournament. It's very hard to do that if a team doesn't finish first or second in the conference and get an opening-round bye; the other four teams that qualify have the difficult task of having to win three games in four days.

A loss against Charlotte wouldn't rule SLU out of the top two, but a win would make it much simpler.

"We can do good things for ourselves with a win," SLU coach Dan Donigan said. "From our RPI to our regional ranking to the conference, a good result would put us back in. We're right on the verge of where we want to be, and with a good result, we can control that."

Out of high school, Roach followed the St. Louis-Bloomington pipeline and went to Indiana, where he played as a freshman and then redshirted last season.

"I wanted to experience going away to college," he said.

Having done that, he left Indiana after the fall semester — "Sometimes people just need a change of scenery," Roach said — and came home to SLU. He has made an impact from the moment he arrived. He scored in every one of SLU's spring games and then had five goals in SLU's first six games in the fall. The rest of the team had two goals.

"He obviously has a presence on the field," Donigan said. "A lot of the guys knew Michael before he transferred back and knew he could be a big contributor on the offensive side. He's lived up to that billing, and the guys have confidence in him. It usually takes people a little bit of transition, but with Michael, it was easy and very successful."

"It's been an unbelievable transition," Roach said. "The guys welcomed me with open arms and were excited to have me here."

When Roach got hurt against Akron, it looked as though SLU might not score again. But the team has scored 12 goals in five games without Roach. Getting him back gives the team more scoring options, which will be needed against a tough Charlotte team. The bigger concern has been defense. SLU already has allowed 19 goals this season, its most since 2005.