Abby Wambach update

I feel a little bit like a hypocrite. Well not exactly a hypocrite. But I feel a little weird about how, now that she's broken her leg, I so easily put aside my issues with Abby Wambach after she said, basically, that athletes shouldn't be political (in regards to the controversies surrounding the Beijing games next month). And truth be told my infatuation with Wambach has been waning. And I'm a little sad about it. It's a little like a break-up; just realizing you're not quite right for each other. It started a while ago when I heard from someone who used to play against her that she would engage in some not exactly fair defensive maneuvers when the refs weren't looking. And the comments about apolitical athletes was clearly a sign that the end was near.

But how can you abandon someone when she's down?

Anyway, this was supposed to be an update about Wambach, not about my changing feelings toward her.

She had surgery last week. There's a metal rod in her leg. (That's going to make air travel--which she undertakes often--a pain. Do you carry a doctor's note for that?) She's in physical therapy and she hopes to be playing again by the time the new women's professional league launches in the spring of 2009. That would be a good thing; because the new league needs her. Of course her absence next month in China could be a great opportunity for some young players to step in and make a splash which would also be great for the league. I am predicting Natasha Kai comes out of Beijing as one of the exciting new faces of international soccer.