An Injury Away from Disaster

The margin between advancing far in the World Cup and an early exit is so slim that the loss of a key player or two can make all the difference. The past couple of days we have seen this with a pair of teams in Group D. Portugal received awful news when it learned that defender Jorge Andrade will miss the World Cup with a knee injury. Fans in Iran held their collective breath when they heard that star midfielder Ali Karimi tore ligaments in his ankle. Fortunately for Team Melli, he will only be out until the end of April.

We enter a dangerous time for World Cup teams. Players are trying to earn their spots in Germany by playing each week for their club teams. In their efforts to get fit and to impress their national team coaches, they leave themselves vulnerable to injury. They have an obligation to play for the teams that pay their wages even if they are a bit banged up.

This is especially true of players who are on some of the big clubs in Europe. In addition to league contests, they also are playing in domestic cup games, as well as in European competition. All of this adds up to more minutes on the pitch and more opportunities to sustain injuries.

FIFA’s Sepp Blatter recently suggested that domestic leagues be limited to 16 teams to reduce the number of games international players play. I’m not sure if this is really the solution, but I do know that there will be a lot of nervous players and fans these next couple of months hoping that their teams don’t see what happened to Portugal this week.

The question of the day: Which player can your team least afford to lose to injury? Go ahead and leave your comments.

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