‘Gruesome’ injury brings back stomach-churning World Cup memory for Canadian men

‘Gruesome’ injury brings back stomach-churning World Cup memory for Canadian men NEIL DAVIDSON PUBLISHED 39 MINUTES AGO Open this photo in gallery: Derek Cornelius played in four of Canada's five World Cup games this summer. The dislocated hip he suffered at training Wednesday was not as bad as initially feared, according to coach Jesse Marsch. GREGORY BULL/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. Reunited for the first time since this summer’s World Cup, the Canadian men’s soccer team endured a stomach-churning moment of deja vu when defender Derek Cornelius suffered a dislocated hip at training Wednesday. “It was a bit of a gruesome injury, just the way that it happened,” Canada coach Jesse Marsch told a news conference Friday. ”We all could see and hear right away that Derek was severely injured. “With the nature of how it happened – which was non-contact, he just got stuck in the grass a little bit – we were all worried. And you could see even on Derek’s face, he was worried.” The incident brought back ugly memories of Ismaël Koné’s broken leg suffered June 18 in Canada’s 6-0 win over Qatar in Vancouver in Group B play at the World Cup. The good news is Cornelius’s injury was not as bad as feared after hospital scans. “It will take some time with the injury but it looks, at it stands right now, like it’s something that he should be able to recover from fully relatively quickly,” Marsch said. Both Cornelius and Koné will be cheering the team on Saturday when the 30th-ranked Canadian men return to action against No. 49 Chile at Toronto’s BMO Field. It’s the first outing for the Canadians since July 4 when they exited the World Cup courtesy of a 3-0 loss to No. 6 Morocco in Houston. World Cup breakthrough prompts Canadian men to target new heights The Chile contest is the first of three outings in the September-October international window with games against No. 50 Peru, on Oct. 3 in Montreal, and the 16th-ranked U.S., on Oct. 6 in St. Paul, Minn., to follow. Canada Soccer reports over 21,000 tickets sold for Toronto and over 16,000 for Montreal. Cornelius joins fellow defenders Moïse Bombito, Alistair Johnston, Joel Waterman and Alfie Jones on the injured list. Midfielders Ali Ahmed and Jeevan Badwal are also sidelined. Veteran goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau wasn’t called up owing to an unspecified personal matter. The…