The Los Angeles Galaxy's match in Seattle tonight has lost a bit of its starpower.

David Beckham and Robbie Keane did not travel north for the club's highly anticipated game against the Sounders, taking two more starters out of Bruce Arena's lineup. That is in addition to the loss of goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who is out for an undisclosed period of time after reportedly enrolling in the league's substance abuse treatment program.

The Ivar's Dog, you'll have to go across the street from CLink to Safeco to get it though

Colorado is in my hometown of Seattle this week to face the neon-green Sounders. Seattle has been a bit of a house of horrors for the Rapids. Over the last 3 years we've lost all 3 games at Qwest/CLink, being outscored 9-4 and the less said about the U.

Ryan Howard is attempting to recover from Achilles tendon surgery. However, the slugging first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies had a setback recently when it was discovered that his foot was infected at the surgical site.

The good news for Howard is that the Achilles tendon wasn't damaged by the infection.

After an offseason full of major moves, promise and tangible signs of improvement, the Portland Timbers were hit with a sizeable dose of bad news Friday.

Colombian striker Jose Adolfo Valencia, signed as a Young Designated Player back in December, requires knee surgery to repair damaged cartilage in his left knee and is going to be out for anywhere from the next 6-to-12 months.

Stay cool, it may feel like deja vu but you're not in the Matrix. It's just this French invention of adding to the venerable Coupe de France a modern nemesis called Coupe de la Ligue, and programming them at the same period.

This cup is the least respected of the two and many presidents already said it should be abandoned, but it has at least two advantages : First, it is the shortest route to a title, meaning it's an opportunity to salvage your season when you've missed the top spot of the championship (thinking of anyone?

Photo by Jose L. Argueta/ISIphotos.com

Two American strikers are drumming up some transfer buzz in Denmark.

According to multiple reports out of the country, Danish Superliga club AGF Aarhus is looking at Charlie Davies and Chris Wondolowski as potential targets during the transfer window, which opens Thursday and lasts through the end of the month.

Several senior Spurs players are currently struggling with hamstring injuries and that could lead to an early move in the transfer market when the window opens next month.

Ledley King, Younes Kaboul, Aaron Lennon, Rafael van der Vaart and Jermain Defoe all have similar problems and after enjoying a settled side for so long, Harry now has a major selection headache ahead of the festive period.

An ocean of luck, that's what Lyon have been bathing in for the last month or so. Even last saturday, OL have won their last home game of the year, for the first time in ten years: another sign of the success of Lyonnais in December. A miracle in the Champions League, followed by other very favorable news (Nicosia, for C1, the neighbor La Duchère for La Coupe de France, a string of referee decisions that got us to win) four straight wins in the Championship .

England's Brave John Terry limped out of today's public training session with what looked to have been a serious injury to his ankle. Thankfully, this appears to be a case of looking worse than it actually was.

Terry apparently suffered a tweak to his Achilles tendon when blocking a shot during the session.

Liverpool will look to keep their push for European football next season going strong when they visit Aston Villa on Sunday.
With 15 games behind them in 2011/12, Kenny Dalglish's side are in sixth place in the English Premier League on 26 points - three behind Arsenal who are in the automatic Europa League place, but 12 behind leaders Manchester City.

It's been an unhappy stay at Aston Villa for Jermaine Jenas and after waiting to make his debut for the Midlands side, news has been confirmed that he is likely to out for the rest of the season.

The announcement on Tottenham's official club website reads,

‘Jermaine Jenas has undergone surgery to his left Achilles tendon and is likely to miss the rest of the season, but should return for the start of pre-season.

It was all going so well, Newcastle United had just earned a fantastic point at Old Trafford and were in confident mood ahead of their clash with Chelsea.

However, things change quickly in Football and Alan Pardew's side are now facing an injury crisis that threatens to derail their fine start to the Premier League season after Chelsea ran out 3-0 winners at St James' Park, a score line which very much flattered Andre Villas-Boas' charges.

News today that Steven Taylor will have an operation on his Achilles tendon tomorrow and will now likely be out for the rest of the season. Steven Taylor -- likely out for the rest of the season This is very bad news for the Newcastle side, but not exactly unexpected, but Steven has still had a terrific season and has [.

Payoff! It took five years, but AEG head honcho Tim Leiweke and the Galaxy finally got their money's worth from David Beckham in 2011 (AP Photo).

MLS Cup 2011 at Carson's sold out Home Depot Center between the Galaxy and Houston Dynamo is now just seven days away.

*David Beckham's 15 assists and the Galaxy's 10-1-3 record with him in the lineup earned him the nod today as the MLS Comeback Player of the Year after missing six months and all but seven games last year with a torn Achilles tendon.

Manager Harry Redknapp said last month that an operation on Michael Dawson's troublesome Achilles would be a ‘last resort', but as we learned yesterday, that has become a reality and will keep the England defender out until January at least.

A statement on the club website reads: 'Michael Dawson has today undergone surgery to his right Achilles tendon to assist with his recovery.

There has been much in the media of late on Thomas Vermaelen's recent injury and subsequent surgery, I intend to explain exactly what is going on to clear up any misunderstanding they may be on the subject. The following is written by a specialist Orthopaedic doctor.Firstly the Achilles tendon is the main tendon that attaches to the back of the heel bone (calcaneus) which bends the foot/ankle

Arsenal have been hit with the news that central defender Thomas Vermaelen will be out of action for a further month.

The 25-year-old who has had plenty of injury problems during his Arsenal career suffered an ankle knock during the Champions League qualifier with Udinese.

Jonathan Bornstein came back earlier than expected after PRP therapy

Jonathan Bornstein was one of the first soccer players in the USA to undergo Platelet Rich Plasma therapy, now known commonly as PRP. Blood was drawn from the Chivas player and then centrifuged leaving mostly platelets.

The achilles tendon: A vital "push off" that helps in a change of position

When does one go from saying that a single instance is happenstance, two is a coincidence, to three or more is a bloody epidemic? Add ankle injury to the list of eventualities an Arsenal player must face including taxes, lack of titles, departure, and death.

Yossi Benayoun is now an Arsenal loan move

Looks like the Mikel Arteta link went cold. Its now Yossi Benayoun who is Arsenal's last minute and increasingly desperate choice to find quality in the attacking third. A number of sources are coalescing around the odds the Chelsea midfielder will land up at the Emirates on a loan move.

In the most predictable news of this season (or indeed any of the last five seasons), Fabio Aurelio is injured *again*, which means he's now spent over 50% of his Liverpool career on the treatment table.
Let's take a look at the facts:
Oct 2006 - Injured: Out for 1 month
Jan 2007 - Injured: Out for 6 weeks
Apr 2007 - Injured: Achilles tendon.

Steven Gerrard to begin light training at Liverpool

• Competitive comeback still scheduled for mid-September • Fábio Aurélio injured again but Martin Skrtel close to return Steven Gerrard will return to light training with Liverpool this week as the club captain continues his recovery from the infection that ruined his start to the new Premier League season.

The emergence of Sanna Nyassi as a speedy striker has a been a big part of Colorado's 3-0-1 record since losing Conor Casey for the season to a ruptured Achilles tendon.

What should have felled a team that was struggling to score instead led to a four goal outburst from Nyassi and 10 points from four games.

Prior to this MLS season, few expected the Columbus Crew to have the view from the top of the Eastern Conference mountain after a roster overhaul that saw numerous veterans get swapped out for unheralded youngsters.

Yet with the calendar turning to August and after a win at perhaps the toughest venue in the league, that's exactly where Columbus stands.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Game time: Friday, 7:30pm

TV: Fox Soccer Channel

As perhaps the only MLS team to gain in confidence during a week of midseason friendlies, the Union must maintain the momentum gained against Everton and Real Madrid as they enter a stretch where they will play three matches in eight days.

Tim Ream and the rest if the Red Bulls couldn't stop Sanna Nyassi on Wednesday. Nyassi's hat trick helped him earn MLS honors on Monday. (Photograph by Jessica Taves/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

The Colorado Rapids finally had a player named MLS Player of the Week, and it only took one of the best debuts by a forward ever to get it.

Sanna Nyassi answered the question of who would score in Conor Casey's absence and delivered one of the best performances ever by a Colorado Rapids player on Wednesday night.

The midfielder-cum-forward scored three goals and got credit for an assist on the fourth as the Rapids eviscerated the New York Red Bulls 4-1 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Photo credit: EricMagnuson
Good afternoon! It's a weird time to be a RBNY supporter, but whatever - there's an away fixture to look forwart to tonight. That's right Red Bulls fans! Our team travels to the Mile High City to take on the reigning MLS Champion Colorado Rapids (9:30pm ET, MSG+).

Conor Casey could only smile as he scored his sixth -- and ultimately final -- goal of the 2011 season in a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps. With Casey out for the season, Colorado begins the search for a new scorer. (Photograph by Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

Maybe Scott Palguta has a few more goals in him this season.

STARTERS
Colorado forward Conor Casey is done for the season and will be out up to 10 months with a ruptured achilles tendon on his left leg.
THE FIFA SCANDAL STORY NEVER ENDS
Andrew Jennings of Transparency In Sport has turned his arrows on Chuck Blazer in recent weeks and gives us the story of the CONCACAF executive pocketing 10% of all sponsorships and TV rights fee the federation brings in.

Colorado Rapids forward Conor Casey will miss the rest of the 2011 Major League Soccer season after rupturing his Achilles tendon against Seattle over the weekend. After having surgery this week, he is expected to need eight to ten months of recovery time. Casey is currently 9th on the MLS goal scorers chart with six goals in 14 games.

With Conor Casey out, who will Colorado turn to? (Getty Images)

I just posted this over at SBNation.com. The Colorado Rapids title defense suffered a major setback today with the news that Conor Casey is out with an Achilles tendon injury for the next eight-to-ten months.

The injury happened in a non-contact play.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

Colorado Rapids striker Conor Casey will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon.

Casey suffered the injury during the Rapids' 4-3 loss to the Seattle Sounders on Saturday. The star forward will miss between 8-to-10 months after tearing his Achilles tendon on a play that didn't actually involve any contact.

By CALEB SONNELAND

It isn't really any surprise that Carlos Tevez is in the headlines once again.

The Manchester City striker has come out and made it clear that he intends to quit the club and move home to Argentina to be closer to his family.

While Tevez is quick to show his respect for City, its fans and owner, he asks for sympathy for the fans' understanding that he has been away from his daughters for the past year.

I know I promised an article on ankle sprains and it is on the way, but I wanted to share some first-hand experiences relating to sports medicine that I have encountered in the last month or so while coaching my U18G team in Midwest Regional League (MRL). One experience is especially interesting after writing about concussions early this year that you can read here.

It's just after 9am the morning before he collects his Footballer of the Year Award, writes Ken Dyer, but Scott Parker is already at West Ham's training ground, changed and ready to test his troublesome Achilles tendon. On top of a cabinet in the club's media office stand three big bottles of man-of-the-match Champagne.

Greetings fellow pleasure seekers!

It's been a busy few weeks at our HQ, with the TTO's surprising return and yesterday's call-for-claws Finest Five write-in and all. You nearly sunk our site's battleship twice, Kickettes, which is both impressive and frightening for our server.

As one small candy-coated token of our appreciation, we're allowing everyone to have another gander around the inner layers of our mailbox's lair.

Being absent for a long time because injury has frustrated Arsenal's center back, Thomas Vermaelen, especially since he already had several relapses and until now doesn't have a clue on when would he be able to play again.

The Belgium international admitted that being unable to play this long is not something common for him that's why the current condition it's mentally difficult for the ex-Ajax player, fortunately he still managed to think positively about his current problem.

Things are pretty quiet today on the Arsenal front. We're still waiting for confirmation of Jens Lehmann's emergency signing. Then again, the official website tends to lag behind the rest of us on these matters so expect confirmation from them sometime in May. In any case, it looks to be set and Keown thinks it could be good for us, so expect the mad German to be on the bench this weekend.

Midweek Arse to you all and it seems funny not to have a game. As far as I can make out the only time we've had seven days between games since the end of December was the week after the 4-4 against Newcastle when we played Wolves at home. Progress in various competitions, a number of times via replay, meant the schedule has been as hectic as it possibly could have been.