There are a lot of concerns growing about the injury of Jermain Defoe, who came to Toronto FC as the designated player for this year. He is one of the top earning MLS star players, but the former Tottenham striker has played very little football. He has been suffering from a hamstring injury since joining the club. This has not only put his future at Toronto in doubt, but also of his participation with the England national team at the World Cup 2014. Even though he has scored three goals in just two appearances, his lack of involvement in the last two matches has raised a lot of questions.
Toronto FC manager Ryan Nelsen has been unable to answer most of the queries since he feels that this absence from the first team cannot be explained. Toronto have made a lot of changes to the squad and they started the season extremely well. They were towards the top of the table for most of the first few weeks, but the club suffered a heavy defeat during the weekend. The 3-0 result against Real Salt Lake has been compounded by the rumours surrounding Defoe. Manager Ryan Nelsen said that the players felt his hamstring before the match. Hence, they had to withdraw him as a precaution.
“He was feeling the hamstring before the game and it tightened up. Hopefully it’s not too bad. He was feeling tight from the start and you could just see it in his movement, he was guarding it. I think it was best to just get him off and make sure he’s all right. I’m not sure to tell you the truth. I haven’t really sat down and spoken to him, but I don’t think it’s the same [injury]. But we’ll see, we’ll monitor him and hopefully he’ll be all right soon,” said the manager.