Red Bulls striker Jozy Altidore says that he will try to play Saturday.
Altidore gave a lot of people a major scare after he was forced from the U.S.'s 2-1 second-round win over Uruguay in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup Wednesday night. He is hopeful of seeing action against Austria in the semifinals.
"I'm going to try, man," he said.
"I don't know at this point, but I'm going to try to get ready for Saturday."
Altidore, who has three goals in the tournament, went down while battling Uruguay defender Martin Caceres for the ball in the 47th minute near the sideline at midfield.
"I just took a knock here," he said while pointing to the area, which had ice wrapped around it. "Not what I really wanted.
"I had a calf injury before this and he hit me right there."
The 17-year-old Altidore was in great pain. He eventually got up and went back into the game. But in the 49th minute, Altidore fell down to the turf in pain again.
"I thought maybe if I would move around a little bit, it would go away," he said. "My first step, it was killing me."
This time he was helped off the field by two U.S. Soccer officials. Andre Akpan replaced him in the 51st minute.
Altidore said the team trainer "tried to stretch it out a little bit. But it was painful, so he just wrapped it in ice."
Even though he wasn't in the lineup for the grand finale, Altidore was impressed the way his teammates battled back from a 1-0 deficit.
"It shows you, man -- one through 21, every player on this team can play," he said. "Somebody steps up and we have guys who are capable of stepping in."
