WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2012 - Just when he finally reached peak fitness and was settling in with a top-flight club Oguchi Onyewu has been hit with another serious injury.
The U.S. team defender, who plays for Sporting Lisbon in Portugal, needs knee surgery and is expected to be sidelined for eight weeks.
Sporting said that a medical scans performed yesterday revealed a torn ligament and meniscus in Onyewu’s right knee, which was suffered in the club’s 1-0 win over Pacos Ferreira on Sunday.
Before the recent injury, Onyewu was expected to be called up for the U.S. team’s exhibition game against Italy on Feb. 29 in Genoa.
It’s a second bad knee injury for Onyewu.
The 29-year-old suffered a complete ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee during the U.S. team’s final tournament qualifying game against Cost Rica on October 14, 2009, at RFK. It ruined his career at AC Milan where he never played a game. However, 242 days later, the Washington D.C. native, played against England, to help the U.S. team earn an impressive 1-1 tie in the World Cup. It was his first 90-minute game since the knee injury.
Onyewu told this writer that his remarkable recovery from that injury was partly due to an anti-gravity treadmill called the AlterG developed by NASA which cost around $75,000.
Onyewu has scored five goals this season for Sporting, including four in the league games. The team is currently fourth in the Portuguese league table.
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