Canada star Ismael Kone suffered an awful injury (Image: Getty)
Ismael Kone admitted the support of his team-mates will stay with him forever as he spoke for the first time since he picked up a horror injury during Canada’s win over Qatar. Kone suffered a broken leg during his side’s 6-0 World Cup victory following a challenge from Assim Madibo.
The tackle occurred in the 52nd minute of the Group B match in Vancouver, and although Kone was able to sit up as he was carried off the field on a stretcher, he is now set for a long period out. But taking to Instagram on Friday afternoon, the 24-year-old thanked his team-mates for their support and promised to be back very soon.
He said: “ALLAH has never failed me. Throughout my life, not even once. So why doubt him now? Especially knowing that. He knows and sees everything before it even happened. He has a plan and a vision for all of us.
“This battle is test to my faith in him and to my character. And honestly I’m ready for it because, ALLAH will never give you a challenge that you can’t overcome and being tested is the best of gift from god.
“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.
“To Canadian brothers, as I turned myself into assistant coach to support you from the sideline. I wanted you to know that I love you guys from the bottom of my heart and our brotherhood is everything to me.
“What you guys did yesterday will stay with me forever. I’ll be back very soon and we’ll keep making more memories together.”
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Ismael Kone was taken off on a stretcher (Image: Getty)
Madibo, who was visibly upset at seeing the distress Kone was in, was sent off after a VAR review as his side were reduced to nine men, following Homam Ahmed’s first-half dismissal. Both sets of players formed a protective barrier around Kone as medical staff raced in to help the Canada midfielder.
And Canada coach Jesse Marsch admitted after the game that he and his players could hear the bone snap. He said: “I haven’t spoken to Ismael yet, he’s at the hospital, he will prepare for a surgery. I’m going to see him after this press conference.
“We’ll see exactly what we decide to do for him. His family is with him at the hospital. It happened right in front of the bench – everyone could hear the bone snap.
Ismael Kone is consoled by Jesse Marsch (Image: Getty)
“Your heart goes out to him, and everybody’s a little shaken by the experience, because of the nature of the injury and also because Ismael is a big part of the team.
“You saw also that he was waving to the crowd and almost making everybody else feel at ease with the fact that he’s injured, and that’s an incredible statement about Ismael as a person, but this is (also) our team.
“I’ve been trying to tell people for two years about the special character of this group, and it gets highlighted in moments of challenge and in moments of glory.
“Today was a representation of all of that, and you got to see how the team, everybody was crushed when it happened, but we had to find a way to stay focused. We knew that Ismael wanted us to finish the job.”