Monday, May 01, 2006

What is it...

....with England and metatarsals?

This is the question that hit me, as soon as I heard the news that Rooney had fractured his 4th metatarsal in the collision with Paulo Ferreira during that horrible match when ManUtd were beaten 3-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Now, mind you, 3-0 was a very wrong indication of how the match went along, the fact confirmed even by Jose Mourinho, who actually said that ManUtd were better than what the final score indicated. (Maybe the man has a good side, or maybe he was just thinking crazy, engulfed by happiness.) But the bottomline is that Chelsea won the premiership for the 2nd year running, and I'm glumly agreeing that maybe they deserved it.

Now, coming back to the topic...
England and metatarsals have had a long and tragic history.

What is a metatarsal anybody asking? Okay...
The metatarsus consists of the five long bones of the foot, which are numbered from the medial side; each presents for examination a body and two extremities. These are analogous to the metacarpals of the hand. Each bone is called a metatarsal, and is numbered from 1 to 5.







Okay coming back...
First, it was David Beckham in 2002 who fractured one of his metatarsals in a collision with Duscher in the ChampionsLeague Quaterfinal with Deportivo La Coruna. That too, just 2 months before the WorldCup. This meant that even though he played in Korea-Japan..he wasn't upto top form.
After that, Gary Neville fractured his metatarsal and was out for a couple of months.
Next - Euro2004 - and Rooney fractured his metatarsal in the match against Portugal. England went on to lose the match, and were knocked out of Euro2004. (Bad Omen indicator beeps...Ferreira is Portuguese. not again!) Rooney only returned 3 months later. (to debut for ManUtd..and scored a hat-trick!!!..damn..i'm diverting again!)
Around a month and a half ago, Michael Owen injured his metatarsal playing for NewCastle. The poor lad hasn't started playing properly till now, and even limped off in his comeback match last weekend!

...and now the Latest Victim - Rooney! (again..*SIGH*)

However, the good news is that doctors say that he'll be back in six weeks, just in time for England's opening match. However, I do feel that is a lil too optimistic. Maybe he'll be fit to be play when the knock-out phase starts. That's when England really needs the boy.

It seems ironic that England's World Cup hopes are now pinned on the tiny bone shown below...

...the 4TH METATARSAL.

8 comments:

poloolop said...

Rooney or No Rooney?

Hope he is back by the WORLD CUP!
(without him, there will be no fun)


Nyway - I am betting on Argentina this time (dunno why)

I know, you will continue with England. Dying for the games to begin>

stan_da_man said...

@US: Yea,i'm roo(n)ting for England..but if they are knocked out, i might also shift support to Argentina...Messi's d star for them!

Anonymous said...

Watching world cup and england without our rooney boyy is hard to imagine...Hopefully the poor guy gets back when the real battle starts....
Germans is also a good bet at home...

Anonymous said...

I don't care about England. Ok, actually i do a bit. But Manchester United has the greater need. They were toothless against Boro. If he's back for next season, I'm happy. Man U need to sign 2 top quality midfielders and maybe another defender.

BTW, for the WC, go Holland!

stan_da_man said...

@padi - yea, ManUtd do have d greater need. Ur right, two top midfielders and a maybe a defender.needed.urgent.
abt d WC, u supportin Holland eh? all d best dude-u'll need luck,d way Ruud is playin. :-|

Anonymous said...

it happens only with man u players...Heavy dependence on one or two key players leads to the opposition tacklin them heavily...I think utd is also to blame... :)


And I back Brazil...That forward lineup will storm the world cup this year...viva la Brazil......

stan_da_man said...

@jayasooryan - aahh, macha..blame ManUtd for everything eh?? lol..i don't think Brazil will win this year though, despite their enviable attack.

@pangu - hehee boy, i'll give credit where credit is due, and that's to me moi-self! these stats are just a result of years of highly-concentrated football viewing! lol...and footie shows as well.dats all! dint pick it up from anywhere! :)

Sajeev said...

Well, Beckham seem to have started it all and curse still remains(as long as it doesn't extend to Owen or Rooney missing penalties at crucial moment in opening encounter of Euro and WCs, I would not take the p*ss)

Well I have been on blogger since NOvemmber and been a Red Devil since 11 years but still contemplating whether soccer is too sacred a topic to bare my emotions.

As for the World cup, though I want England to win I don't think they have much of a chance to reach even the semis and my second team would be Holland but as I have been typing this comment I actually think that Italy is going to win the WC(ofcourse that is taking Brazil out of the equation since it is in Europe.