This news was later discovered as the physician in charge of the Korean WC2002 Squad had to turn in the official medical report to the KFA. This report indirectly shows why Hwang had to halt his attempt to finish his career at the MLS because of his current serious injury. According to the report over 202 injuries were reported during the World Cup. (although a fact not included in the report but in the FIFA's stats, Kihyun Seol was the most tackled player in the WC2002) 17 of the players suffered from the COS(Chronic Overuse Syndrome). Hwang, for instance, had THREE different COS with him. His willingness to compete made all the medical staff worry his career and eventually made the staff create a separate file just for Hwang. The physician in charge, Hyun-chul Kim, commented that the reason why Hwang is suffering from injuries right now is not irrelevent with his over-usage at the WC stage. All the players who were fielded were playing despite the injuries that should keep them off the pitch. Hiddink made the medical staff and the players to not to mention anything about the injuries in order to make the opponents unaware that some players might not be able to play. some examples of the COS "sufferers": Jung-hwan Ahn- ankle Sang-chul Yoo - knee Jisung Park - archilles Sun-hong Hwang - knee, lumbar, pelvis the physician in charge commented that almost all the players used pain-killers which are allowed within the limits of FIFA regulations. He also commented "due to these reasons, all these players need a thorough rehabilitation,medication program at their respective clubs." http://www.sportschosun.com/news/sports/200212/20021221/2cu07004.htm
Sensationalist Korean media. get real. I won't believe it until I see a reputable foreign source on it. Hwang and Yoo were injury prone to begin with. Yoo was injured in the Poland game because of a tackle, and he had to play through that injury for the rest of the competition. That's it.
Chachi... this is true I saw a documentary on KBS about Choi Jin-Cheol, and after the Italy game, he had to goto hospital becuase of fatigue (COS). He wasn't supposed to play against Spain, but as he is the tallest Korean defender, Hiddink played him.
another one that pops out of my memory is Tae-young Kim who got his nose broken by Vieri's elbow but Hiddink kept him on the pitch. The physician on the team commented at the time that Tae-young Kim's nose was going to be completely flattened forever had his nose got "contacted" by anything right after Vieri elbowed him. But Hiddink didn't have any other solution but to make Kim play, so he told the physician not to tell Tae-young Kim about the broken nose. The physician told Kim that the nose is "actually ok" and Kim continued to play with the pain. Although Kim played with a mask on after the Italy game was over, he continued to play the Italy game with a risk that could end his career forever. Obviously, he was sent to an emergency room after the Italy game and found out that his nose was broken.
AP, New York Times, or Reuters. If you're gonna give me this blind-nationalist bullshi+ about "what's so bad about Korean newspapers?" save it. You and I both know what's wrong them. AP, NYT, and Reuters don't print rumors without qualifying them as rumors first (if they even print them at all). OK, I'll include Yonhap too as a reputable source - with regards to sports, at least.
yeah, but that's straying from the topic of COS. As for the Choi JC one, did Hiddink think that an injured Choi was so much better than Lee Min-sung or an injured Yoo Sang-chul? I'm really not buying this.
as a defender? DEFINATELY. Please don't mention M S Lee. He was lucky to be at the WC stage since Im-seng Lee was injured and thus had to leave the Hiddink squad.
this "news" will never make it to those media. Why on earth would they wanna mention that now when they've got much bigger football news coming up. It's a report that was sent to the KFA and that's that. There's no reason to be "sensational" at all since it's all over.
Not to be snide or anything, but didn't a whole bunch of other teams play injured, i.e. England and France? You seem to be implying they could have done better if not injured. I'm sure they would have, but so would have the other teams if everyone was at 100%. Reflecting on 2002, we should be proud of the Korean team on what they accomplished, which was above and beyond what ANYONE expected, and not "what could have been."
well obviously I'm not trying to play the "if" game here. Like I said, this medical report was sent to the KFA and I just briefly stated what's on the report. Hwang's career is basically over now because of his willingness to continue -despite having 3 different COS- at the WC and it is that mentality I look up to. Zidane was injured, but he didn't play against Senegal. Had he had Hwang's mentality, he would have played.
Ok ok, comparing Zidane's injury and mentality to Hwang is tasteless. Sure Zidane may not be as hungry since he has won the cup and many accolades, but its not fair and pointless. I think Zidane will always be the great player that will be remembered and a victim of an injury caused in a pointless friendly and vigorus scheduling. Also injuries are always not the same form one player to another. I thought Beckham wouldn't make it after he fractured his foot, I still get amazed how fast he recovered. Zidane's injury in a friendly right before the cup was such a shame. Anyhow, I think Zidane's injury was pretty serious, especially when you watch the only match he played. It looked like he was barely able to stand on the injured foot and his legs were giving out. Korea had the heart that most teams didn't have. That mentality and the crowd was certainly a big advantage in their succes. Before I get strayed from the topic, I think it was noted that FIFA and club scheduling was putting too much strain on the players. In Europe, these players play almost two games a week. I mean cup matches, league matches etc etc, and with that intensity, K league or even J league players have it easier than that. I am saying physically here since watching J league games, or Asia club championship matches, the difference in speed and stregnth is apparent. I am not putting our countries down, but we are still on way to become solid contendors, we need to be humble and not so big headed after one succesful run in the cup. Afterall, Korea took many tries to have a win before this one. Japan took many tries to reach the WC, lost all 3 in the previous WC and finally won 2. It was great to see Korea rise above and seemingly getting stronger and stronger as the match went. Now the cup is done and over, 2006 should be in the picture.
Lee Ul-Yong needs immediate surgery on his ankle. Tendon is almost torn apart and he carried his injury to his club in Turkey and no adequate treatment was given to him there. Some may view this thread as implying to others that Korean national team could have done better if they did not carry so much injuries, but that is NOT the case here. You guys are the ones who are implying that to yourself because perhaps there is some personal emotion that prevents you from accepting the facts presented to you with an open mind. This is nothing about the performance of Korean NT in WC, but simply the fact that Korean players were often carrying numerous minor and serious injuries and they are carrying this to their clubs in Korea, Japan and in Europe and paying the price. Song Chong-Gug and Lee Ul-Yong is now officially off for rest of the season because of the injury or fatigue that they carried on from the tournament in June. THAT is the point of the discussion here and NOT the implication that noobie deluxe, nakataxxx and others implied. This is indeed a blow to Korean NT. Besides the main point of this thread since Nakataxxx mentioned it by the time of 2006 Korea and other Asian nations will have completely different squad to now and no one can say anything definate about it other than that it will have similar group of elites at the top table. So why bring up this irrelvant topic???
correct. the whole point of the original article is about the physician's warning to the respective clubs that have the WC players. He's warning that since those players carried on despite the injuries that should have normally kept them off the pitch, they should get immeidiate medical treament from their respective clubs. So far, Hwang, Song, Chunsoo Lee, Ahn, and Eul-yong Lee are down. They were extremely injury-prone after the WC.