Karsdorp Tears ACL

Media outlets in Italy are reporting that Karsdorp complained of pain in his knee overnight and was brought to the Roma medical facility at Villa Stuart for a routine check up. The diagnosis couldn’t have been any worse; a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. This injury comes just three months after Karsdorp had a less serious procedure done to his other knee on July 3.

Roma released the following statement on the injury:

Immediately following the match between Roma and Crotone, the Roma medical staff conducted medical checks on Rick Karsdop, who twisted his left knee during the second half of the game at the Stadio Olimpico.

Having sustained suspected ligament damage, the player was subject to further examination during the night.

It was subsequently confirmed that he has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

On Thursday afternoon specialist surgeon Professor Mariani will conduct further tests on the player, in order to establish a treatment procedure.

This injury deals a blow to Roma’s newfound depth at right back and ironically was diagnosed on the same day as Alessandro Florenzi’s knee injury last October 26 vs Sassuolo. Roma will hope that Karsdorp’s recovery process goes smoother than Florenzi’s and the Dutchman makes a speedy recovery.

{Added by Bren}

If you’re wondering if Roma’s spate of ACL injuries (I think we’re up to 15 now) is normal...umm, yeah, it’s not:

It’s definitely something unique in modern football...From memory I can’t remember many teams with such a nightmare to deal with. There are a lot of factors: the type of training, hasty rehabilitation, the ground, the studs.

The studs are important now too, so many boots have rectangular or non-square ones and when you plant your foot you can get an unnatural twist.

There’s no real explanation though. Bad luck, sure, but is it possible they could all happen like this?

I really can’t give a scientific explanation, I’d say that all of these things are partially responsible, but to what extent in each case is hard to establish.

Something hasn’t worked out though, that’s clear.

That prescient input was from Dr. Silvio Rossi, and while I’m not sure in what capacity (if any) he works with the club, it does add fuel to the fire—something is amiss with Roma’s training program.

So, yeah, that was 19 million well spent....on to the next.