The world’s sexiest goal keeper is set to miss 5 to 6 months of football action due to a nagging shoulder injury, but Hope Solo is expected to return in plenty of time for the 2011 World Cup in June. Of course due to Solo going under the knife sometime in the next week that means the team will have to qualify without their star keeper this upcoming year, but if Solo were to have the surgery sometime this week or next, she would be expected to return to action by the end of March at the latest.
Solo made the following statement about why she decided to undergo surgery right now:
These next two years are huge for the national team with the World Cup and Olympics on the horizon and I wanted to make sure that I would be giving my team and my country my best on the field. I’ve been having some painful issues with the shoulder for a while and for a goalkeeper it’s been difficult physically and mentally to play with this kind of an injury, so it was time to get it taken care of.
And Solo has accumulated over 90 caps during her international career and has regularly been the starting keeper of the squad since 2005. The blond beauty is of course famous for her postgame rant about former coach Greg Ryan benching her in favor of recently retired vet Briana Scurry in the World Cup final 4-0 loss to Brazil. Solo claimed that the decision was an unfair one and that she was the better player at the moment. She accused her coach of living in the past and choosing the starter based off name power.
It was a controversial quote at the time, but most people would admit that everything Solo said was exactly right. She was the better player and she did deserve to play in that game, but she probably could have handled the situation a bit better. However in 2011, I think it is safe to say that Solo will be in the net for the USA women’s side.
But first they need to qualify.
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