US defender Cat Whitehill to miss Olympics

The US Women's team suffered another injury blow this week as defender Catherine Whitehill was diagnosed with a torn ACL. This injury will prevent her from heading to China in an attempt to win back-to-back gold medals.

Whitehill played every minute of the 2007 World Cup and held her own under very strong attacks. She is a key player in the US backfield and will be very difficult to replace.

This news comes three-weeks after midfielder Leslie Osborne was also ruled out of the Olympics due to an ACL tear.

With two similar injuries in less then a month, one has to wonder if training is to blame. Whitehill's father Phillip Reddick seems to suggest this might be the case:

They've really been working them hard," he said.

Whitehill tweaked the knee prior to the team's trip to South Korea for the Peace Queen Cup.

"They thought it was fine," Reddick said. "Yesterday (Tuesday) morning at practice, the knee buckled and it looks like it's a torn ACL.

This is a very serious situation and one the coach Pia Sundhage should be looking into.

Whitehill is expected to take 8-months to recover from this injury.

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[Source: My Soccer Blog]