re: USMNT Starting XI?

quote:

---

Pomykal went to the Altidore School of Perpetual Injury.

---

In the past year or so Pomykal had a meniscus tear that was repaired, a “core muscle injury” (sports hernia, probably) that required surgery, and a CAM deformity that required surgery. These are all pretty common issues in soccer players and not really anything out of the ordinary. A CAM deformity is an anatomical variant of the femoral neck where there is less concavity, causing it to whack the labrum when your leg goes into certain positions. This leads to labral tears, which are trimmed down or repaired, with the CAM deformity corrected simultaneously. Hopefully this recent surgery on the CAM deformity will decrease his injuries going forward (at least of the hip).

When Joseph Scally almost missed the U17 World Cup with a hip injury/surgery it was a CAM deformity. I learned this at a soccer medicine conference where the NYCFC doc talked about a bunch of cases of (anonymized) players he had treated, but knowing who he covered and being a soccer nerd and remembering when players missed time it was really easy to deduct who he was talking about

Mike Grella’s career was cut short due to a cartilage lesion within the knee that is almost impossible to effectively treat. He was really pissed at the NYRB and Columbus crew staff until after his retirement. Sean Johnson keeps having issues with patellar tendinitis. Anton Tinnerholm has had cartilage issues too. One of the NYCFC academy stars tore his ACL doing one of those backflip celebrations after scoring a goal. They now discourage this Russell Canouse dropped a lung during one of the games and had to go to the ER for a chest tube.