Canada’s Koné has long road ahead after World Cup injury, doctors say. Canada celebrated its first-ever World Cup victory Thursday night, but Ismaël Koné spent the aftermath in a Vancouver operating room.
The 24-year-old Montrealer, who was a key player for Canada, underwent surgery after breaking his left leg in the 6-0 win over Qatar. Koné fractured both the tibia and fibula following a tackle by Qatar’s Assim Madibo and was carried off the field on a stretcher.
Canada coach Jesse Marsch said the injury happened in front of the bench, and that you could hear the “bone snap.”
By Friday, Marsch provided an optimistic update under the circumstances.
“He had a tib-fib fracture, but they did the surgery last night,” said Marsch. “The doctor said it went perfectly. And ... Ismael’s already been up this morning.”
“Just up in his bed, and then he sent a video message to the guys, so, he was in good spirits.”
Dr. Jihad Abouali, an orthopaedic sports surgeon and former team surgeon for Toronto FC, watched the match live on TV and knew immediately it was serious for Koné.
“I knew something bad happened right away, just from his reaction and the opposing player’s reaction,” Abouali said.
“There was an audible snapping sound, so definitely sounded like a bone being fractured.” The tibia is the leg’s main weight-bearing bone, while the fibula provides stability.
Asked how painful it would be, Abouali noted Koné was likely in shock.
“So he seemed to be taking it well,” he said. “He’s obviously a tough player.”
Marsch revealed that three top surgeons from Vancouver General Hospital operated on Koné’s leg — and that all three had been watching the game on TV before rushing to the hospital, TSN’s James Duthie reported.
“It does require an operation, likely to put a rod down the middle of his bone, down the tibia,” Abouali said. “Once that rod is in, it’s stabilized by a couple of screws, which is a very strong implant, so you can walk on it right away.” Abouali estimated Koné could be back training on the pitch in roughly five or six months, and said it make take a few months after that to get into full game shape, given how explosive a player he is.
Crucially, Abouali does not believe the injury is career threatening.
“I would not think so. Severe fractures are common injuries. Patients and athletes like do very well after this operation, and we’ve come a long way in doing these techniques, minimally invasive.” he said. “We’re gonna miss him on the field, but I do believe he’ll make a strong recovery.”
Dr. Aaron Nauth is an orthopaedic trauma and sports medicine surgeon at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto. He also believes Koné will make a full recovery.
“It’s obviously a pretty devastating injury for a high-level athlete that spends a lot of time running and jumping and kicking,” said Nauth. “But it’s certainly something that you can recover from after an appropriate period of time.”
As for whether he will have any lingering effects after the recovery, Nauth doesn’t think so.
“I think he should be essentially as good as new after an injury like that.” Koné is the third member of this Canadian program to break a leg in recent years — and Marsch pointedly compared the surgery to those of the other players.
Winger Tajon Buchanan broke his tibia in training during the 2024 Copa América, had surgery in early July, and did not rejoin the national team until that November. Defender Moise Bombito also fractured his leg in club play last October and went through a lengthy rehabilitation.
Bombito, who knows the road ahead better than most, visited Koné in hospital and posted a photo of the two of them together on Instagram. One teammate who has come out the other side standing beside one just starting the journey.
Koné, for his part, struck a grateful tone in his own Instagram post, thanking the fans and players who had reached out.
“Your love and support has been felt, honestly thank you so much,” he wrote. “You can’t even imagine, how grateful I am to everyone who reached out and that has me in their prayers. I thank god for that because not everyone is this fortunate.”
View 4 times
#Russia is working to repatriate 11 Russian citizens from Azerbaijan, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"It was stressed that the soonest release of our nationals will be an important step toward normalizing and promoting further development of bilateral relations," she said in an interview with Vesti.
Director of the ministry’s fourth CIS countries department, Mikhail Kalugin, told us earlier that the release of 11 Russian nationals who were arrested in Azerbaijan last summer would be a major step toward strengthening relations between the two countries.
The Russians were detained in Azerbaijan in late June 2025, and on July 1 an Azerbaijani court placed them in custody for four months. On October 28, 2025, a court extended their arrest for three more months. The Russian nationals are accused of drug trafficking and cyber fraud.
View 5 times
Exclusive: U.S. intelligence agencies have warned the Trump administration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to take steps that will undermine President Trump’s effort to reach a lasting peace deal with Iran.
View 97 times
The US Armed Forces have lifted the naval blockade on Iran and are no longer restricting the movement of vessels entering or leaving Iranian ports, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).
"Today, US forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President's direction. American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. All US military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased. Our great Naval Ships will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect," the statement said.
#CENTCOM added that #US naval vessels will remain in the region to monitor compliance with the agreements reached. According to the command, their task will be to ensure adherence to all provisions of the agreement and oversee its implementation.
View 108 times
TYRE, Lebanon — Adnan Kaour returned on Thursday to check on his home in southern Lebanon ‘s coastal city of Tyre — once known as an idyllic summer getaway spot — just a week after Israel issued warnings for all of its residents to evacuate.
The warnings were followed by sweeping airstrikes, which Israel said targeted the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.
What Kaour found back in Tyre shattered his hopes. His dream family apartment overlooking the shimmering Mediterranean Sea was a heap of rubble and shattered glass.
His return came after the announcement of an agreement between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East. The deal also calls for an end to the war in Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Hezbollah, but it’s unclear what that means in practice.
Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the agreement. Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal doesn’t explicitly require that and only ensures Lebanon’s “territorial integrity.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s military will stay in a “security zone” of southern Lebanon as long as “Israel’s security needs require it.”
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri -- a Hezbollah ally -- said Thursday that the group was committed to the ceasefire, “provided that Israel adheres to it fully and comprehensively.
For its part, Hezbollah has said that it’s committed to resisting any occupation by Israel. Fighting between the two sides, which was still underway on Thursday in some parts of southern Lebanon, could derail the deal.
Many hope the U.S.-Iran deal signals better times
For residents in the south of crisis-battered Lebanon, hopes of better times are mixed with skepticism after many ceasefire announcements that had failed to halt the fighting.
Kaour lives in Germany, but spends most of the summer in Tyre. Last month, when an Israeli strike hit their street without warning, he was abroad with his family.
When he returned, he saw his building, with a popular sweets shop and an electronics store on the ground floor, was still standing, unlike surrounding structures that were levelled to the ground.
But walls and windows had been blasted out. He was relieved his family had not been there, he said.
“I’m hopeful for peace, and God willing this is the end of the war, and everyone can go back to their homes,” he said. “We are living abroad, but our minds are here in our country.”
Outside, the street filled with people trying to clear the rubble.
Kaour’s neighbour one floor above, Samih Haidar, had also just returned and found his door bolted by wooden boards.
He tried to kick them down, but failed, then anxiously waited as two men who had been clearing rubble on another floor came and unscrewed the bolts.
Through a gap, Haidar climbed in. He didn’t know what to expect. He had rented the apartment out to a family displaced from another area in the south, people who came to him through a friend.
His anxiety turned into shock: broken furniture, shattered glass, rubble and a burned out kitchen that had caught fire after the strike. He slowly walked through each room, quietly filming with his phone. He doesn’t know what became of the tenants — displaced from Tyre like scores of others, he presumed.
“We want things to work out and live in safety, so there can be stability for us and everyone else,” Haidar said.
An isolated enclave hopes for reprieve
Farther south, the Christian village of Ain Ebel is one of a few enclaves in Lebanon’s border area where residents have remained during the war. Christian villages, where Hezbollah has little presence, have been largely spared the destruction of neighboring Shiite villages. But they have their own problems.
The village is cut off from the rest of Lebanon by fighting and Israeli checkpoints, relying on aid convoys that require extensive coordination to get through. One such convoy, organized by the Order of Malta, a Catholic lay religious order, arrived Thursday bearing emergency livestock feed and supplies for farmers.
Cattle farmer Boutros Maroun said people in Ain Ebel are exhausted.
“We don’t care about America and Iran, we want the Lebanese people to live comfortably and happily,” he said. ”Every two years there’s a new war, and we can no longer take it.”
The convoy was delayed in returning to Beirut because of explosives found on the road, which had to be cleared by U.N. peacekeepers.
Fighting pierces a tenuous ceasefire
The fighting subsided but did not stop Thursday. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli drone strikes, including one on a car in the town of Kfar Tebnit that killed one person and critically wounded another. Hezbollah later said in a statement that its fighters clashed with Israeli troops trying to advance on the town. Israel did not comment.
To the north, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, displaced families huddled along the waterfront in Beirut. Most of them have been sleeping in tents for months, living in limbo. For others, it’s a bench or a mattress on the ground.
Many said they’re not convinced that the U.S.-Iran deal will hold or that they will be able to return to their homes — if they still exist. In the border area close to Israel, many Lebanese villages have been almost completely demolished.
“I haven’t felt relieved at all,” said Mohammed Ashmar, displaced from the border village of Deir Seryan, holding a cup of coffee and sitting near his tent on the waterfront. “Until I get back to my home ... I won’t be convinced of anything.”
The Israel-Hezbollah war has displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon, and killed more than 3,900, according to Lebanese officials. About 30 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to Netanyahu’s office.
Speaking during a visit by foreign dignitaries on Thursday, Lebanon’s Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed said the country faces urgent humanitarian needs but also the daunting task of planning for the return of displaced families and reconstruction of the destroyed areas.
“The Lebanese people deserve peace,” she said. “They deserve to return safely to their homes, rebuild their communities, and look to the future with confidence and hope.”
___
Associated Press journalists Fadi Tawil in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report. Hussein reported from Ain Ebel, Lebanon.
Kareem Chehayeb Malak Harb And Bilal Hussein, The Associated Press
View 108 times
Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his work at the Russia-ASEAN summit, dedicated to the 35th anniversary of Russia’s relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Thursday is the main day of the event.
The Russian leader is expected not only to participate in two multilateral sessions but also to hold a series of bilateral meetings. He is set to meet with almost all heads of the foreign delegations that have arrived in Kazan, the summit’s host city.
Participants will gather in the morning at the Kazan Expo International Exhibition Center, where the Russian president will welcome delegation heads. They will pose for a traditional family photo before proceeding to the first session, scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (7:00 a.m. GMT).
The session will open with addresses by Putin and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who are co-chairing the summit. Other delegation heads will also deliver speeches, and everyone will exchange views on the most pressing issues on the international and regional agenda. Besides, the parties will also review the main achievements of strategic partnership between Russia and ASEAN, outlining new goals in politics, security, trade, investment and humanitarian cooperation.
Four documents are planned to be signed as the result of the session. The first one, titled the Kazan Declaration, will "enshrine the coinciding approaches by Russia and ASEAN to international issues and the fields of further cooperation." Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said earlier that "commitment to forming a fair and democratic multipolar world order, based on universally recognized principles of international law and the UN Charter, has been especially emphasized."
The parties will also adopt the 2026-2030 Comprehensive Action Plan to Implement Russia-ASEAN Strategic Partnership. The document outlines specific steps to expand practical cooperation in key areas, including politics, security, trade, investment, energy, transport, agriculture, digital technology, and science. Russia and ASEAN will also approve joint statements on the energy sector and culture.
Working breakfast, bilateral meetings
The heads of delegations will then take part in a second session, a working breakfast dedicated to integration processes in Eurasia. The event will also involve Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev and Eurasian Economic Commission Board Chairman Bakytzhan Sagintayev.
The participants will hear a report on the outcome of the June 17 Russia-ASEAN Business Forum, delivered by Sergey Katyrin, president of Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The session, to be held behind closed doors, will feature a free discussion.
Putin and Marcos Jr. will make statements to the media afterward.
The Russian president will then continue the series of bilateral meetings that began on Wednesday. Putin is particularly expected to meet with the prime ministers of Vietnam, East Timor, Cambodia, Singapore, and Thailand. Yesterday, the Russian leader held conversations with the Philippine president, the leader of Brunei and the prime minister of Malaysia. He also received Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Russia-ASEAN summit
The current summit marks the 35th anniversary of relations between Russia and ASEAN.
This is not the first time Russia has hosted such a gathering. In 2016, the Black Sea resort city of Sochi hosted a summit marking the 25th anniversary of #Russia-ASEAN relations.
ASEAN comprises 11 member states: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, #Singapore, Thailand and #Vietnam.
View 116 times
On his way home from the #G7 in France, Donald Trump send more mixed signals about the future of the North American trade pact. Read the Canada Daily newsletter.
View 117 times
Trump said that Iran can access a $300 billion private fund 'only if they’re doing things right' and that the US has taken a lot of Iran's money which will at 'some point' have to be returned
View 118 times
Global News on Umojja.com