By Philip O’Connor
VANCOUVER,, June 19 (Reuters) – Canada midfielder Ismael Kone expressed his gratitude to God, his teammates and their fans after suffering a broken leg in his side’s 6-0 thrashing of Qatar in World Cup Group B on Thursday.
The 24-year-old was caught by a clumsy second-half tackle from Qatar’s Assim Madibo, and underwent surgery to repair the damage.
“Your love and support has been felt, honestly thank you so much. You can’t even imagine, how grateful I am to everyone who reached out and that has me in their prayers. I thank god for that because not everyone is this fortunate,” Kone wrote on Instagram on Friday.
Several of Kone’s teammates looked on in shock as he received treatment on the field before having his leg placed in an inflatable support.
“I wanted you to know that I love you guys from the bottom of my heart and our brotherhood is everything to me,” Kone wrote.
“What you guys did yesterday will stay with me forever. I’ll be back very soon and we’ll keep making more memories together.”
Canada are due to train at the National Soccer Development Centre at the University of British Columbia on Friday before having a team barbecue. Their final group game against Switzerland is on June 24.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)
