First, Charlie Davies nearly lost his life in a deadly car crash, sustaining terrible injuries in the process. The very next day Oguchi Onyewu ruptured his patellar tendon. Two massive parts of the US World Cup plans, out for months, and with prognoses that would make their World Cup comebacks difficult to imagine.
Then Clint Dempsey injures his knee while playing for Fulham. Benny Feilhaber picks up an injury in Denmark. Ricard Clark's inclusion in Eintracht Frankfurt's squad is delayed due to a muscle problem. Even Jose Franciso Torres felt the sting of a temporary knock. Add Stuart Holden, who broke his leg in the USMNT friendly against the Netherlands, and the Americans had a full-fledged injury apocalypse on their hands.
And yet here we are, less than ninety days from the tournament, and there's a reasonable chance all of those names will be healthy and available to play in South Africa. If Davies and Onyewu are anywhere near their pre-injury form come June 1st, each is a mortal lock for the squad, while Holden dropped word on Facebook and Twitter today that he's out of his cast and walking on crutches. With a little luck, he'll be playing again shortly, and most of us would pencil him into our World Cup 23's without a second thought.
Double super bonus if Bundesliga standout Jermaine Jones miraculously recovers in time for June.
It seems to me that Bob Bradley (and by extension, the US fan base) is damn lucky. Of course he would have rather that Davies not find himself in that car in October, or that Onyewu hadn't landed funny while contesting a ball in the air. But injuries happen. Perhaps not on this large a scale, but they will always play a role in how a World Cup roster is constructed. Still, barring any major catastrophes (anything worse than a muscle pull or ankle sprain, at least up until the middle of May), Bradley will likely have every player he might want at his disposal, with the possible exception of the aforementioned Davies and Jone. Davies situation is just too unique to make a call on quite yet, and Jones has such a long recovery from his shin fracture that speculating on his return now would be impossible.
So what was panic only a month or two ago can give way to a sense of relief. There's still the little matter of each of the players returning from injury getting back to form, but no longer does the injury shadow linger over the team. There's even an argument available that some of the players in question will be fresher in June for having had a bit of time off in the first quarter of the year; that could be an overly positive spin, but it's not impossible.
Injuries are bad, but getting them out of the way "early" (if such a thing is possible) could be the Americans' saving grace in South Africa.
No more injuries from here on out, though, okay boys? If we're not past the point of no return yet, it's rapidly approaching.
Misfortune kicked the US in the ass for a couple of months there; let's hope it has moved on to others (Englad would be nice, though I'm not really wishing injury on their players...)
