![\"Canada's](\"https:\/\/sports.inquirer.net\/files\/2026\/06\/AP26170021639120-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCanada\u2019s Ismael Kone reacts on the bottom after sustaining an injury in the course of the World Cup Group B soccer match against Qatar in Vancouver, British Columbia, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
VANCOUVER, British Columbia\u2013Canada\u2019s historic first World Cup victory was overshadowed by a gruesome injury to midfielder Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Kon\u00e9 injured his left leg when Qatar midfielder Assim Madibo tackled him from behind within the second half, sending the 24-year-old to the bottom. Kon\u00e9 grimaced and players rushed to his aid, calling for help from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
Madibo was sent off for the tackle on Kon\u00e9, who was protectively surrounded by his teammates while he was treated on the sphere before he was stretchered off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw his leg. I saw that something wasn\u2019t right,\u201d Canada captain Stephen Eust\u00e1quio said. He was amongst one in all the primary players to succeed in Kon\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Kon\u00e9 was whisked to an area hospital were he was preparing for surgery while surrounded by family, Canada coach Jesse Marsch said. He said the injury happened right in front of the bench, and you could possibly hear the \u201cbones snap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was crushed when it happened, but we had to seek out a solution to stay focused, we knew that Isma\u00ebl wanted us to complete the job,\u201d Marsch said. \u201cThere\u2019s a number of thoughts that undergo our heads at once, we\u2019re all fascinated by him, but we\u2019re all very pleased with what we’re.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsch added that Madibo personally apologized to Kon\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Madibo\u2019s red card left Qatar to play with nine men, after teammate Homam Ahmed was sent off in the primary half.<\/p>\n
Fewer than 10 minutes later, Kon\u00e9\u2019s alternative, Nathan Saliba, scored Canada\u2019s fourth goal within the 6-0 win and held up Kon\u00e9\u2019s jersey in an emotional tribute.<\/p>\n
Canada striker Jonathan David, who scored a hat trick, questioned the necessity for the tackle on Kon\u00e9.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a play where you can not win the ball, there\u2019s no point,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s simply to hurt people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The main points of Kon\u00e9\u2019s injury haven’t yet been disclosed. His lower left leg looked visibly broken in photos after the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to miss (Kon\u00e9),\u201d Eust\u00e1quio said. \u201cHe has that X factor that our team really needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Canada\u2019s Ismael Kone reacts on the bottom after sustaining an injury in the course of the World Cup Group B soccer match against Qatar in Vancouver, British Columbia, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr) VANCOUVER, British Columbia\u2013Canada\u2019s historic first World Cup victory was overshadowed by a gruesome injury to midfielder Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9. Kon\u00e9 injured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[15453,1060,667,25402,25278,2064,5823,813],"class_list":["post-353258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-canadas","tag-cup","tag-injury","tag-ismael","tag-kone","tag-match","tag-suffers","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353258"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353261,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353258\/revisions\/353261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}