Abby Wambach is Out of the Olympics with a Broken Leg

Heartbreak for the US Women’s National team. Abby Wambach won’t be going to the 2008 Olympics.

In the final pre-Olympic friendly last night, a 1-0 victory over Brazil, Abby broke her leg in the 31st minute in a collision with a Brazilian defender.

The win also featured a loss for the U.S. team, as top scorer Abby Wambach broke her leg in a 31st minute collision with Brazilian defender Andreia Rosa. The two players went hard into a tackle and the Brazilian caught Wambach with a full swing flush in the middle of her lower leg.

Wambach went down in a heap and immediately called for medical attention. The match was stopped for about five minutes as an air cast was put around her leg and she was loaded onto a stretcher. Wambach was taken to the hospital where X-rays confirmed a mid-oblique fracture of her tibia and fibula, the bones that make up the lower leg. The USA’s leading scorer this year with 13 goals and 10 assists will undergo surgery tomorrow to have a rod inserted in her leg and will be out approximately 12 weeks.

She has to be heartbroken, but she had positive things to say to her teammates and the people around her:

‘I want to thank all the fans, the doctors, the players on the team and Tasha Kai for scoring the winning goal,’ said Wambach from the emergency room. ‘Obviously, it’s devastating, but above everything else, I’m only one player, and you can never win a championship with just one player. I have the utmost confidence in this team bringing home the gold.” …

“I’m excited to watch them and cheer them on during this challenge they’ve been presented with,” said Wambach. “It’s really going to take everyone coming together. I love them all so much, and appreciate so many people involved with this game and the team. I put my heart and soul into this game every day, but sometimes accidents happen. I’ve gotten so many calls already, and I just want to say how much I appreciate that.”

Brave words, but you know this has to hurt.

And losing her will make things a lot more difficult for the team as they head to China. Abby has scored 99 goals in 127 games, and the team has come to depend heavily on her. The hope was that she’d score her 100th goal very soon — if not last night, then certainly in Beijing. Now, instead, the team will be trying for a medal without her as she works on her rehabilitation.

To give an example of what the US will be missing, here’s a compilation of the 31 goals she scored in 2004:

And for an interesting personal look, here’s a video of Abby discussing life and soccer at home while she’s with her family in Rochester, New York, before the qualifiers for the 2007 World Cup.

Get well soon, Abby.

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