"Josh Wolff Suffers Fractured Rib, Expected Out 6-8 Weeks KANSAS CITY, MO (Tuesday, October 21, 2003) – Kansas City Wizards forward Josh Wolff suffered a fractured rib during training at the Arrowhead Outdoor Training Facility on Tuesday. After colliding with a teammate during training, Wolff was taken to the hospital where x-rays revealed a fracture to the fifth rib on the left side. Wolff is expected to be out 6-8 weeks and as a result, will miss the final game of the 2003 regular season as well as the playoffs. Wolff appeared as a second half sub in last Saturday’s match against the Dallas Burn, marking his return to action following an ankle injury that forced him to miss the previous five matches. Wolff has appeared in 13 matches including nine starts on the season. He as scored two goals and added one assist in his first season with the Wizards. Kansas City concludes their 2003 regular season next weekend with a trip to the Nation’s Capital when they take on D.C. United at RFK Stadium. The match will kickoff at 6:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast live on Metro Sports. Kansas City will then face the Colorado Rapids in the first round of the playoffs, once at home and once on the road. The Wizards first playoff match will take place either Friday, October 31st or Saturday, November 1st. Log on to www.kcwizards.com for the most updated playoff information as it becomes available. " So how many times is that this season?
I remember several months ago I was watching an old tape from January 2002 and thinking how wonderful of a player he was and how quick he was... he's never gonna be the same player. Period. I don't suppose its his fault but perhaps we should dump him...
quick! get that boy some calcium supplements! bloody h***, all this season hasn't he received another injury within the week of coming off a previous injury? we should change his name to Why Bother
I'm certain this isn't his fault, but gawddammit...enough is enough. I'm having visions of Ben Olsen here...
Aw, come on, now. I don't recall anyone on this board having anything but praise for the deal at the time.
He appears to be the closest succesor there is to Tab Ramos...But, damn, he is still young...It must be terrible having to go through this garbage so often...
Somebody give me credit for this one... https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74138
6-8 weeks! In Rochester in 1999, Yari Allnut broke his fifth rib in a game and collapsed a lung. He was back the next game (5 days later). Talk about sucking it up. I doubt Mr. Fragile will find the intestinal fortitude required to get over this before the end of the season. Look for Mr. Wolff to be in a A-League kit next year...if he's tough enough.
To be fair, and we've gone over this before, this statement isn't fair to Curt Johnson. On one hand he had an injury prone player. Sure its a risk. But theres a risk that this could happen to any player. At the time the Wizards needed exactly two things (I never heard anyone disagree with this..): a striker and a defender. They traded for Wolff and Conrad. Made perfect sense. Putting yourself in Johnson's shoes, in January 2003 (notice, NOT October 2003 b/c hindsight is 20/20) you've got two proven starters available to you to fill the exact spots you need. You've almost got no choice but to take the deal. No one knew Damani Ralph (or any other draft pick for that matter) was going to explode like he did. Johnson had two risks and he choose one. One the other hand he had available to him a player with World Cup experience who was coming from one of the better teams in MLS. IF (sure, again in hindsight thats a huge IF) he stayed healthy he had the potential to do great things. But, as we learned a year before, IF you take a draft pick they could blow out their knee before the season began (see: Burciaga). Its all a risk, I'm not really sure we can blame CJ for the fact that Wolff is made of glass.
Fine great but you pick a player with a bad rap of being hurt all the time to come in and solve the striker problem. It didn't work out and we are wasting a crap load of money on the guy for nothing. I hate to that becuase I like the guy but he hasn't done anything but be hurt since he has gotten here. FWIW At the draft I said that it was a great move if he stays healthy. But with his past it will probably come back to haunt us and by golly it has.
I agree with this post completely. It has turned out to be a bust. I just wanted to make sure and note that not very many fans were as completely against this trade back in January as they are now. Sure many of us, myself included, were quite worried that he wouldn't stay healthy. But it came across to me that nearly every fan, and most importantly Curt Johnson, I talked to about the trade was willing to take that risk.
I've been complaining about it since it was made. And many Fire fans have been laughing since the trade was made. Josh Wolff's MLS career has been noteworthy because of all of the injuries he's suffered. This isn't "bad luck". It's predictable. So we gave up 1) 200k of cap room that would not have been paid to a #3 pick 2) We gave up the #3 pick in the richest draft in MLS history - chock full of players ready to play today. 3) We gave up the #3 pick in the draft - held in Kansas City in front of a room packed full of Wizards fans desperate for something to cheer about We got 4) Josh Wolff
Josh Wolff Code: Josh Wolff Year GP GS MIN G A 1998 14 4 651 8 3 1999 28 17 1775 10 2 2000 25 20 1917 7 5 2001 3 3 244 2 0 2002 14 14 1223 5 5 ---- 84 58 5810 32 15 compare Preki Year GP GS MIN G A 1998 25 24 2164 10 13 1999 30 28 2572 7 11 2000 31 29 2485 3 15 2001 24 24 2139 8 14 2002 25 24 2141 7 10 It gets even bleaker looking at postseason play. He played 262 minutes in 5 games in his rookie season (1998), but has only played 20 minutes total of playoff soccer 1999-2003. There's no way anyone could've predicted that that he'd be injured at the end of the season when it matters most. No way at all.
While I defended the move in January, hindsight has shown me that it probably was a bad move. Although, I still will contend that its impossible to predict that any of the rookies would have done good here. Gansler doesnt have a history of trusting youth. Someone like Ralph may not have thrived in our system or with our players. One thing I will say is that I feel very sorry for Josh Wolff the person. I know that he was very excited about the move to KC, so much that he actually requested that the be traded here rather than elsewhere. Its got to be heartbreaking for him to want to contribute so badly and one thing after another go wrong.
Well... I suppose some folks made similar comments about Clint Mathis. He has had a remarkable physical recovery more than once. Meola also falls into that catagory. I have no reason to think Josh would be any different.
half-full at least it's just his ribs and not another knee or ankle, which just might decimate any hope for a return. i think he'll light it up when he gets back to form, and offseason training/qualifiers w/the nats should help. wp
its in his head now that he is fragile...and if you play like you are scared of getting hurt, you are more likely to do so... I also heard that Wolde, Igor, and Gomez were all hurt in practice yesterday...hopefully none of those injuries are too serious.
I'm not afraid to admit that I was wrong, along with Curt Johnson, and people like mead were right. I still think it's worth going for high-risk, high-reward players, but Wolff has been a bust. Of course, after one year with Tony Meola, I labeled him a bust and wanted him out of town. I was wrong about that, and I have a souvenier ring to show for it.
Not to say lightning will strike twice, but I couldn't agree more. Just like you never know what will happen on the front end, you never know what the back end will bring until you're there.