Andrea Pirlo has recovered from his injury and is ready for selection for NYCFC Wednesday night. (FrontRowSoccer.com Photo)

Midfielder Andrea Pirlo is ready to play for New York City FC. The same, however, can’t be said of center back Maxime Chanot.

The former Italian international has recovered from a knee injury that has kept him out for almost a month and is available for selection against the Red Bulls for Wednesday night’s encounter in the Lamar Hunt/U.S. Open Cup match at Red Bull Arena.

Chanot suffered a hamstring injury in Luxembourg’s 5-0 World Cup qualifying defeat at the Netherlands Friday. It was not known whether the regular center back will be available for Wednesday night. He left the field in the 25th minute.

Midfielder-forward Khiry Shelton, who is recuperating from a hamstring injury, is still two weeks away.

“We didn’t play for quite a while, have players coming back from injuries, and have most of our players available, so it’s going to be good to give some players time as well,” NYCFC head coach Patrick Vieira told NYCFC.com. “So, the mix, the balance of the team has to be good.”

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.