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Just as Jurgen Klinsmann is monitoring every United States player and crossing his fingers they don't get hurt, he's surely keeping an eye on which Ghana, Portugal and Germany players suffer injuries between now and the World Cup. On Wednesday, the biggest start from all of Group G went down, as Cristiano Ronaldo suffered an injury in Real Madrid's match with Valladolid.
It wasn't clear what Ronaldo hurt, but he left in the ninth minute of a very important match so it can't have been a very minor thing. He would have continued to play if it didn't seriously hamper him or he was concerned about injuring it further.
Ronaldo did leave under his own power, but he has had hamstring problems of late. He missed the Copa del Rey final with a left hamstring strain so that could have been the injury, or it could have been a new knock.
There is still five weeks until the World Cup and six before the U.S. plays Portugal in Manaus so he will have plenty of time to recover if it is a minor or even moderate injury, but if it is serious then the U.S. may have caught a break. It's never good to see anyone get hurt, especially someone as amazing as Ronaldo, but injuries are a reality in sport and the U.S. will certainly be monitoring the Portuguese's status to see if maybe they can benefit.
