Dallas Stars Lose Radek Faksa To Injury In World Cup
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars have once again taken a bullet from the World Cup of Hockey. Another game played, another center lost to injury.
The madness needs to end before things get any worse. The Dallas Stars are losing players to injury, and the World Cup of Hockey is to blame.
Back in late May when the rosters for each of the eight teams were announced, the Stars seemed poised to have a strong representing class at the tournament. But now that the World Cup is actually here, it’s an entirely different story.
In early July, Dallas made headlines when they signed captain Jamie Benn to an eight-year extension worth $76 million. The move was overshadowed a bit by another serious issue: Benn’s health.
The captain underwent surgery to repair a core muscle in his stomach that he had pulled during offseason training just around the time that he signed his new contract. The Dallas Stars locked in a key piece to their future, but the recovery time for his injury left a lot of questions to be answered.
Benn ended up being the first Star to drop out of the World Cup of Hockey. Five Dallas Stars in total were invited to the tournament, including Benn, Tyler Seguin, Radek Faksa, Ales Hemsky, and Esa Lindell. In late August, Benn officially dropped out due to recovery and focused instead on being ready for training camp and the regular season.
That’s one down. After Benn’s exit, Seguin was the only Star representing the overstocked and absolutely loaded Team Canada. But even that did not last long. On September 9, Seguin was injured in a preliminary game against Team USA.
He tried to play it off and continue to participate, but eventually the injury became too much. After traveling back to Dallas and initially thinking it was a minor issue, the Stars found out some different news. Doctors discovered a hairline fracture in Seguin’s foot, leaving his status unknown. He will be reevaluated in a week and may miss training camp or an even more extensive amount of time.
Two down. And now the newest member of the World Cup/Dallas Stars player injury list: Radek Faksa.
On Saturday evening, Team Czech Republic kicked off their tournament play against Team Canada. The game, as you can probably guess, was heavily one-sided. Canada ended up winning it 6-0, giving the Czechs a beating they will not forget anytime soon.
Among the Czechs on the losing squad were Faksa and Hemsky. But Faksa did not make it through the entire game. Midway through the contest, Faksa headed for the locker room and did not come back for the remainder of the game. There was no exact instance on the ice that could explain the injury, so it was left up to the imagination to explain it all.
After the game, it was simply pointed out that Faksa did not finish the game and was being checked out by the medical staff. A somewhat (not really) more detailed description was given today.
Apparently Faksa is listed with an upper-body injury, but it does not seem ultimately serious. The Czech head coach said that they would see if Faksa would be ready to play in the next Czech game, which is later today at 2:00 p.m.
Next: Stars Might Be Without Seguin Longer Than Expected
It does not sound serious, but a line needs to be drawn here soon. The fact that the Dallas Stars are losing players left and right due to injury in the World Cup (which has nothing to do with the regular season) is not very reassuring. It’s already claimed two. Let’s hope the madness halts before things get any worse.