World Cup Injury Update: Jozy Altidore’s hamstring injury

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Jozy Altidore had high hopes for his World Cup campaign in Brazil. But in the first game against Ghana, the 24-year-old striker, who is the leading force of the USA soccer team, was taken off on a stretcher. After a sprint, Jozy Altidore’s injury resulted in a strained left hamstring, and now all American soccer fans hope that the injury is not too serious, which would keep him out for the game against Portugal.
“I was sprinting and I felt something. We’ll see what happens,” he said. “I was crushed. I knew right away I couldn’t continue. It was the worst feeling.”
Strained hamstrings are common with soccer players, and besides the terrible pain they cause at first, the biggest problem with world cup injuries are that they may take a while for the player to recover from, explains  Manhattan Orthopedic Care specialist Dr. Armin Tehrany.
  Whether or not Altidore gets back on the field, largely depends on where exactly was the hamstring injury located:
“Unfortunately, Jozy Altidore’s injury may not allow him to play against Portugal in Sunday. It remains to be seen where exactly the hamstring strain was, if it was more to the center of the hamstring, it would take him a while longer to get much better. Regardless, it would probably take more than this game on Sunday for him to get back. Sometimes we are injecting what’s called PRP in to the joint in the hopes that would get you back faster, along with a lot of ice. So we would see, if the orthopedic surgeons feel it’s appropriate for him” says Manhattan Orthopedic Care’s board-certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. Armin M. Tehrany, MD, FAAOS.
The troubles for our soccer team before the Sunday match don’t stop here. Other news in World Cup Injuries: team doctors will also have to deal with Matt Besler’s less severe hamstring injury and Clint Dempsey’s broken nose. This situation one again stresses the importance of having skilled orthopedic staff in our national teams, regardless of the sport.