Dempsey Injured Knee Could Mean End of Fulham Season and No World Cup

Clint Dempsey winces and covers his face as Fulham medical staff tests his knee stability

In the 62nd minute of Sunday’s Fulham’s game against Blackburn Rovers, Clint Dempsey accepted a pass and one timed it off to a teammate. As he moved wide for better positioning he immediately raised his hand to the referee and then dropped to the ground. The look on his face said it all – pain, disappointment and a seeming realization that something very, very bad had just happened. The US International immediately was gingerly groping the back of his knee and rolling his hands to let the bench know a substitution would be needed. The medical staff soon signaled the same sign to Cottagers boss Roy Hodgson.

Dempsey walked off the field on his own accord and kept pushing the medical assistants arm off of him. The look on his face was one of utter frustration and it was clear that Dempsey knew he had big trouble. The midfielder must certainly have been thinking about the rest of his season and his World Cup hopes. You could almost see the dread.

Fulham coach Roy Hodgson, whose squad has been decimated with injuries this season, said after the game, “Clint will be scanned tomorrow, but we feel it might be a posterior cruciate knee ligament (PCL), which would be very bad for us and he would be out for a while. It’s a concern up front because Clint Dempsey is very useful for us.”

USSF spokesperson Michael Kammarman said the USSF training staff had been in contact with Fulham, and the severity of the injury will not be known until after an MRI exam determines the exact ligament hurt and whether there is collateral damage.

“The doctors are pretty good these days. I would like to see them to be wrong more often,” Hodgson said. “Often their initial diagnosis appears to be the correct one when the scan is made.”

PCL damage pertains to  the ligaments in the back of the knee and are usually graded between I and III depending on the amount of tear or if the whole ligament has pulled away. For an athlete, surgery is usually required and a 6 month to 1 year recovery can be experienced. Some experts say that PCL recovery can be more difficult than ACL surgery.

The injury to Dempsey, if serious, will be devastating to the US National team. It’s very doubtful that US forward Charlie Davies, who was seriously injured last October, will be ready for South Africa and defender Oguchi Onyewu is still recovering from a torn patella suffered last fall and isn’t expected to make a full recovery until shortly before the World Cup convenes in June.

Three key injured players for the US could seriously hurt the team’s chances at World Cup 2010 and shows the lack of depth the US still struggles with. However, there are very few teams in the world that could sustain three injuries to go-to players and not be affected. Perhaps a Brazil, Argentina or Spain has the depth and cover, but even a country like England would be hard pressed to come up with quality substitutes for some of their positions.