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.
Does help explain why Casey looked like he wanted to start a fight from the ground after–maybe thinking he’d been kicked?
That really is too bad for Casey. I never liked him as a player, but that sucks for whoever it happens to. As for the surface, all this talk of whether or not the it had something to do with his injury is a straw man. There is no way to tell either way. People will swear that it was and others will swear that it wasn’t. Plus, I think the only people claiming that this was karma for Zak’s injury are being ironic/sarcastic.
It’s highly unlikely the injury had anything to do with the surface. Still have the game on DVR (HD) and just rewatched the play in slo-mo. His foot doesn’t slip or slide at all as he jumps. He plants and lifts cleanly.
Of course there’s no way of definitively knowing either way, but it doesn’t really matter. If his achilles was so fragile it tore on the way up on a clean jump, it was going to tear tomorrow anyway. People all over the world play on surfaces far worse than that and there’s no epidemic of torn achilles.
+1 to basically everything Joamiq has said here.
And do your family and friends them compliment you on your obvious degree of class?
Yada yada yada…
As I’ve repeated several times now, my contention is with the declaration by Sounders fans that the surface played no role in the injury, simply because of what they saw through their Sounders-colored glasses. My argument is not that the surface was the determinative factor, but that there is 0 substantial basis for ruling that possibility out, no matter how the injury looked to you.
Can you really argue that it couldn’t have happened just as easily on another field? You have no basis for that argument, just as I have no true basis (other than my personal opinion) for arguing the opposite. It is not like his foot got caught in the temporary grass. He jumped cleanly and it tore, simple as that. He could have had the exact same thing happen on any field in the league.
You cannot deny that Casey has a history of picking up injuries. Some people just don’t hold up as well as others, especially as they get older.
No, again, you have no basis for those statements. Sure, his injury could have happened on any other field. But could it have happened “just as easily” on any other field? Again, there is simply no way to know for sure, but there’s a fair chance that the injury happened more easily because of the field condition. There’s definitely no basis for saying that the injury was just as likely on another field.
And I meant that it’s not really fair to say that any particular person’s Achilles is bound to go eventually, including Casey. You can’t say with any degree of certainty what the chances were of his Achilles tendon tearing. And even if you could predict the likelihood of this injury based on past similar injuries, I don’t think Casey has ever had an Achilles tendon injury anyway.
Lol relax buddy. I also agree that the surface was poor, but the only point I was trying to make was that he is a walking injury just waiting to happen. His injury just as easily could have happened on any field in the league. My argument was not that anyone’s achilles is bound to go eventually, but his specifically.
No, I have no horse in this race, so I have no reason to be defensive. I’m purely on the side of logic. And sorry, but the idea that anyone’s Achilles is “bound to go eventually” is just silly. You Sounders fans are seriously reaching. Why? I don’t get it. The surface was poor. Someone got hurt. The surface may have been the reason. It may not. But it certainly can’t be ruled out. Just deal with it and move on.
Seems like you are the awfully defensive one. His 30 year old achilles was bound to go eventually, whether he had jumped off of turf, temp grass, or real grass. Its too bad he couldn’t have just injured his mouth instead. That guy is a head case.
MLS HQ is popping the champagne corks! The Rapids won’t invade their million dollar designated-player-annointed playoffs this year. It’s all about making money. Casey was in the way of their plans.
Just a fact to throw out there for all the Casey-haters. Since 2008 only Landon Donovan has scored more goals in MLS than Casey (by 3 IIRC).
Wow. Some of you people are truly offensive. Casey isn’t the best or most elegant player out there, but suggesting that his injury is deserved because of Zak’s injury is pretty flawed logic and downright mean spirited. And comparing him to a bowel movement is just juvenile. Ives, please hire an intern (or a player on the disabled list) to police your message boards. Some of your readers are losing brain cells at an alarming rate and need to get smacked down.
Oh, no. No no no no no no.
He plays for my team, so I’m a fan, but I can see how his game rubs people the wrong way. Someone wrote that Casey already plays like he had a torn achilles. Funny. He is soooo slow. He can’t beat any defender with the ball. He just bulldozes his way into the 6 and knocks it in. Yeah!! Well, no more of that. I’m hoping Mac gets his mojo quickly!
Haaa… +1.
You consider Casy a star? Casey is a thug. I find it ironic that he is out with a major injury. If he was a midfielder his brutish play would have people calling for his head.
everytime i take a dump i say “i’m going to take a conor casey.”
I didn’t say that there was. But it’s patently absurd to declare that “the field had nothing to do with it”. It’s a pretty fair assumption that if someone gets injured after jumping off of a surface, the surface played SOME role, even though we’ll never know for sure how much. Anyway, Seattle fans need to stop getting so defensive about it. It is what it is.
really??? well then i hope mullan playing for colorado is worth it after he broke Zakuani’s leg.
And yet there is no evidence to prove that it was the turf that cased the injury. Lets leave the CSI work on TV where it belongs Detective.
And yet there is no evidenc to prove that it was the turf. Lt’s leave the CSI work to the pros on TV not here detective.
A real shame. I credit Casey for staying in the MLS instead of running to Europe last summer when he had that last shot at doing so. The league needs stars, perhaps way more than it needs superstars who come too late or leave too early.
So the surface that he jumped off of made no difference? You’re only kidding yourself if you believe that. It played a part. Whether or not it was the determinative cause, that we’ll never know. But there’s 0 evidence that rules out the surface as a factor.
Mac Kandji better hustle back
Along with Ching, another US striker that doesn’t get his due. Would have rather seen one of these 2 guys instead of Lazy Out the door at the World Cup.
Achilles are usually completely freak accidents. When one goes, it goes.
Usually, but when the grass is temporary, with no real drainage and it rains all morning, the resultant surface is slick and terrible.
It was worth it.
And isn’t turf worse grounds to play on than temporary grass?
Bad News!!! Colorado has more good strikers on the roster than starting spots with Kanji, Amerikwa, Omar, Akpan and Folan but for some reason Casey is always the most effective.
Fair enough. My statement was more to point out the irony of the situation than to blame the grass for Casey’s injury (although it may have been, we’ll never really know).
well, the field still could have easily been a factor in causing the injury. if the surface had been firm, he would have been able to push off without incident, but with the give in the surface, his ligament snapped as he tried to push off. i think it is fair to say that the crappy temporary grass
I can’t say I’m a Casy fan (whose nickname in my house is Big Ugly, which is not quite without affection). He’s more a brawler than a player, but obviously it’s effective. Sucks to lose a distinctive personality, even if I don’t like him
The only feasiable alterantive to getting old sucks even more.
I doubt seattle is losing sleep at night over the health of a Col. player.
i dislike casey as a player, his game just rubs me the wrong way…I do feel really bad for him though, and for the rapids fans
Sorry B, not the case on this one. No player contact, he jumped and came down clean.
The guy is a walking M.A.S.H. unit since 2005. Of course that was when he torn his ACL playing a Gold Cup match at Qwest.
I have had exactly that experience with one of my friends. Getting old sucks.
I hope the cash Seattle is making for that friendly game is worth the career-threatening injury Casey got. He wouldn’t have gotten that injury if it wasn’t for the terrible temporary surface Seattle put down for Manchester United.
*tore
Wrong. Casey jumped for the ball and it torn as he jumped. The field had nothing to do with it. The picture really sums up his day in Seattle though. Non-stop bitching at anyone and everyone.
I’ve been on the field two seperate times when a teammate has done that. They both asked who kicked them when noone was near them. Neither times was the field the problem and ironically both players were Caseys age. Makes you wonder if some loss of flexibility was part of the issue.
If he takes a negative attitude, it might.
Beckham came back. I went through this, before, at 31, and was playing at 6 months in better shape than ever.
If he takes it on as a challenge, and is religious about doing his PT, coming back is quite do-able.
Mullan ended Zakuani’s season, Seattle’s crappy temporary grass ended Casey’s season.
I wouldn’t wish an injury like this on anyone. Hopefully he can come back after his recovery. Definitely a hard blow for the Rapids.
id say he’ll never be the same again, but from watching him play it seems as if he’s been playing with a torn achilles anyway.
Wow, that’s harsh. Definitely hurts the Rapids’ chances in the second half of the season.
Sad for Casey! His is the guy who was most responsible for the USA getting past Honduras in the last W.C. qualifying, despite taking a lot of heat from Ives’ commenters. I wish him well, but:
He turns 30 next week. He was never the most mobile of players, this injury will not help and may well end his career.
Sorry to hear it.