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Casey out for the season with torn Achilles tendon

Conor Casey (ISIPhotos.com)

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

 

Colorado Rapids striker Conor Casey will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon.

Casey suffered the injury during the Rapids' 4-3 loss to the Seattle Sounders on Saturday. The star forward will miss between 8-to-10 months after tearing his Achilles tendon on a play that didn't actually involve any contact.

Casey's injury is a major blow for the Rapids, who have been battling injuries all season. Having just recently gotten its forward tandem of Casey and Omar Cummings back and healthy, the Rapids will now have to lean on striker Maccoumba Kandji, who just recently returned to the team after recovering from a torn ACL suffered in the 2010 MLS Cup Final.

What do you think of this development? Think the Rapids can recover from this, or do you think losing Casey will be too much to overcome?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I’m gonna call the cup half full and say that it’s a lucky break for US Soccer. Now hopefully Andre Akpan will get more minutes, and start to show what he can really do – and that he belongs on the USMNT.

    Connor, get well. Tough break. Chin up.

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  2. Odd debate on whether the field was a factor.

    If you actually read the article, the coach describes the issues with the temp grass and why he suspects it contributed to the injury.

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  3. It is the sounder’s ‘home field’ advantage. Whether grass or turf, people are going to focus on the surface. The sounders can’t win (except all those games).

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  4. Again: because Casey planted and jumped cleanly. And again, you’re turning me into an absolutist when I never said anything absolute.

    Your position is like finding a dead body next to a gun and saying there’s a fair chance the person was shot to death even though you can’t find a gunshot wound.

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  5. I think when people talk about whether AstroTurf or FieldTurf or just plain old crappy grass “caused” a catastrophic injury, they’re talking about a direct and obvious cause—something rolling, hyperextending, or tearing because of a slip a slide or a snag. Growing up in Chicago, I remember Wendell Davis, my favorite Bears receiver, stretching for a pass at full speed when both his cleats got caught in the AstroTurf at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. His body wanted to go forward, his feet wouldn’t let him, his patellar tendons paid the horrific price, and he was done playing football. That’s what I, and I think most of us here, mean when when I say it doesn’t look like the turf caused Casey’s injury.

    But if you’re defining “cause” in a much less proximate sense, then by all means, who knows what caused it. Maybe he tweaked it earlier in the game and didn’t know it, or maybe it was 100% genetic and all four of his grandparents tore their achilles at 31 and if he didn’t tear it on Saturday afternoon he was going to tear it stepping out of the shower Saturday night.

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  6. “You Sounders fans are seriously reaching. Why? I don’t get it. The surface was poor. Someone got hurt.”

    You make the statement that the field was poor. In doing so you imply that it could be the cause of casey’s injury. You are no better than the Seattle fans who say the opposite. Casey did not slip, trip, fall, or step in a hole.

    “There is absolutely no evidence that the quality of the surface did not contribute” Their is also absolutely no evidence that the quality of the surface DID contribute.

    You are obsessed with logic but somehow this concept continues to escape you.

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  7. Sigh. How many times do I have to say this? Let me try a different way: the fact that a field was involved is incidental. It’s the notion that anyone could know that “[x] had nothing to do with it”, when x is something reasonably in proximity to “it”, that I’m contesting.

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  8. “In reality, nothing that I’ve said has actually been about the field at all. It’s only defensive Seattle fans who have taken it that way.”

    Um, except when you said this in your 6:23 post: “There’s a fair chance that the injury happened more easily because of the field condition.”

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  9. Ah, but Jason, your eyes are irrelevant. Totally irrelevant. In so many ways. For example, who’s to say that running on the surface prior to the injury didn’t have an impact? Who’s to say that there wasn’t something specific about the point of impact on his takeoff, that you and I can’t see (and that isn’t something you can blame the team for – blame has never been my object here), that was a major factor in the injury? Why should what you see on the replay of that play, if it’s not conclusive, have any bearing at all as to what caused the injury?

    I retract any statement I made that seemed like a speculation as to how much of a role the surface played. Obviously I don’t know. It’s just silly to rule it out because you didn’t see anything on the replay. The surface is what he ran on the rest of the night prior to the injury. To conclude that the surface – what his boots made contact with, all night and on that jump – was a non-factor because it looks clean to you – well, I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but it’s simply bogus. No matter how normal it looks to you, you can’t possibly know what went wrong.

    The fact that you use the word standard is revealing to me. It shows that you think that I’m judging, like there’s some kind of blame to be apportioned here. That’s never been my object. Sometimes conditions don’t go your way and the best laid plans go awry. But you’re absolutely right – the playing surface IS a likely role in almost every occurrence on a soccer field, including injuries. It only seems absurd if you think that I think those responsible for surfaces should then be blamed for all bad things that happen on it. Not at all. The reason that I said above that I don’t get why Sounders fans are pressing this is that I don’t see why you should have to defend Seattle for sod not taking. Maybe they made some mistake in applying it, but whatever, what MLS team hasn’t had a crappy field at some point? It’s a shame that some fans feel like they have to state conclusions that they simply can’t have arrived at by any rigorous reasoning for something that doesn’t really need defending. I’m just calling that out. Again, I really do not care at all about the sodding sod.

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  10. Nope. Sorry, I have no agenda. Obviously if you’re feeling defensive it feels like a complaint about the surface, but I really couldn’t care less about the field. You can go back and check if you’d like – I’ve never complained about the surface in Seattle, ever.

    No, it is not completely illogical to assume an Achilles can be damaged prior to being torn. Straw man. Never said that. Of course it could have been a major factor.

    The simple fact is that there doesn’t need to be evidence to support the notion that the field was A factor. The field was a factor. So is what he ate for breakfast. So is how much sleep he got the night before. Some of those causes are proximate, some are not. My contention has never been that Seattle should somehow be criticized because the field was in bad shape, or that the field is the only reason he got hurt. Read this carefully. My sole contention is logical. Seattle fans have tried to claim, mostly on the basis of what the injury looked like to them, that the field did not cause the injury. But there is simply no way to know if that is the case. Everyone is free to speculate as to what they think may have caused the injury. But to flat out declare that the surface COULD NOT have caused in the injury is ridiculous. Of course it could have. My contention is with that statement. I really don’t care about the field.

    In reality, nothing that I’ve said has actually been about the field at all. It’s only defensive Seattle fans who have taken it that way.

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  11. “Unbelievable. You Seattle fans really just won’t stop.”

    Thinking it doesn’t look like the turf caused the injury has nothing to do with me being a Seattle fan and everything to with me having eyes. I wholeheartedly concur that the field was crap and could very well have led to injury. I’m holding my breath that it doesn’t hurt any Sounders tomorrow night. But that is a far cry from there being a “fair chance” that bad turf causes every injury that happens to occur on it. Conor Casey didn’t slip, didn’t slide, didn’t get snagged. Get over it.

    “There is absolutely no evidence that the quality of the surface did not contribute. That’s incontrovertible, so just stop trying.”

    Seriously? How asinine. No one can prove with absolute certainty that any surface positively did not contribute to any injury. For that matter, I also have “absolutely no evidence” at the moment that Barry Obama isn’t standing behind me about to ask if he can buy me a beer. Which is to say that, yup, it is incontrovertible that the unprovable can’t be proved. Which is probably why I didn’t try, and instead said things like “highly unlikely” and (wait for it…wait for it…) “OF COURSE THERE’S NO WAY OF DEFINITIVELY KNOWING.”

    The only completely illogical and laughable position here is your stance that there’s a “fair chance” an injury that occurred on bad turf was caused by that turf, despite the fact that the film shows Conor Casey planting and jumping cleanly on the play in question.

    Of course no one knows the “physics of what happened.” That said, we do know the common-sense standards people have used for forever: were there any footing problems on the play in question? Slow-motion HD replay says no. On the contrary, by your absurd standards fans should fill message boards questioning the role of the playing surface in every injury in sports since, you know, there’s no way of knowing “the physics of what happened” regardless of what the film shows.

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  12. That’s only because Edson Buddle is no longer in MLS, he would have more goals than Casey had it not been for his 2009 injuries. Otherwise I think he would have managed 6 goals probably about 8 or 10 with Beckham giving him so many chances. Barret has managed like 4 but also blown about 6 or 8 CLEAR chances!

    Don’t worry tho, he is known as a consistent scorer in MLS, but I think we can all admit he bullies his way to goals, not all the time but I’d be willing to guess he gets about 3 or 4 a year that way. And he cries about calls all the time when he’s fouling people constantly left and right

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  13. Your argument is a disguise, what you’re really trying to do is complain about the surface of the field. People have been bitching about our turf for two years solid, we get grass and it still doesn’t stop.

    Are you a doctor? Is it completely illogical to assume that an achilles can be damaged prior to being torn? Or are all achilles perfectly healthy until that one blade of grass bends their foot the wrong way?

    Since we’re being logical, shouldn’t we blame the Earth’s iron core for providing gravity? How about the sun for heating the Earth so that we all can live?

    The guy didn’t step in a hole. He didn’t slip. He didn’t trip. He planted on terra firma, left the ground, and he hurt himself. When people say the surface made no difference, they are comparing grass to turf to dirt, not a feather pillow. The fact that you even mention the field means you have an agenda.

    “It can’t tell you anything about the physics of what happened. Just because it looks fine to you doesn’t mean it was.

    ” The opposite can be said as well Spock. There is absolutely no evidence that the field was or wasn’t a factor. That’s why your platform makes no sense.

    Normally I wouldn’t waste my time on BS like this, but you call out people from Seattle so that’s why I’m weighing in.

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  14. How can you sit there and call Jozy Lazy, and say you’d rather have Casey? Did you not watch the Confederations Cup in 2009?

    Yes Casey scored 2 goals that were crucial in Honduras, he also was served 1 in a platter by Donovan, literary.

    And the next game vs Costa Rica in DC after he started due to Charlie Davies getting in that horrible accident, he missed a CLEAR chance that Jozy fabricated by actually using his body to fight off defenders and set Casey up PERFECTLY. Could of been the best way to honor Davies on the brink of him being in the balance for his life. And something tells me it would have been much easier to contain Costa Rica with a lead in the 9th minute!

    Ching was injured and he’s proved it with his lack of form and his series of injuries, I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t score more than 15 goals the rest of his career, he has a year after this in his contract, which will KILL the Dynamo at 300K+, just so he can play and see the new Dynamo stadium built.

    Hell I won’t be surprised if he won’t score more than 3 or 5 goals THIS year. They only have about 15 games left. And they have very little offensive creativity, only set pieces with Davis! That will show Ching is a hard worker but can hardly create or score any more!

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  15. Unbelievable. You Seattle fans really just won’t stop.

    Look, you can rewatch the tape all you want. It’s not going to reveal anything definitive. It can’t tell you anything about the physics of what happened. Just because it looks fine to you doesn’t mean it was.

    Your last statement is laughable logically. That people play on worse surfaces without tearing Achilles tendons has 0 bearing on this situation.

    There were many factors that resulted in this injury. There is absolutely no evidence that the quality of the surface did not contribute. That’s incontrovertible, so just stop trying.

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