CHICAGO, Ill. - The Chicago Fire has announced that veteran defender Jim Curtin will be out approximately 4-6 weeks after suffering a fracture in his right foot. Curtin suffered the injury during the second half of last Saturday's 1-1 tie against the Kansas City Wizards at Arrowhead Stadium. The 26-year-old Curtin is not accustomed to losing games to injury, as the broken foot will force the team's resident "Ironman" to miss significant time for the first time in his six-year MLS career. Curtin is the only player to register at least 2,000 minutes in each of Chicago's last four seasons and ranks sixth in club history with 134 games played, 123 starts and 11,341 minutes played.
Seeing Double: Defender Jeff Curtin Also Out After Undergoing Athletic Pubalgia Surgery
Jim Curtin is not the only member of his family added to the team's injury list this week, as his younger brother and fellow defender Jeff Curtin will also be missing from action after successfully undergoing surgery for an athletic Pubalgia (sports hernia) condition this past Tuesday in Munich, Germany. The procedure was performed by Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck, who has performed the same surgery on over 1,500 professional athletes including former Fire midfielder Peter Nowak, German international goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and former England international striker Alan Shearer. After sitting out of this weekend's MLS regular season and Reserve Division contests, the younger Curtin will be reevaluated next week and is expected to miss only 7-10 days of action.
MLS Pool Goalkeeper Peter Dzubay Invited to Train With Fire
The Fire has announced that MLS pool goalkeeper Peter Dzubay will train with the squad throughout the 2006 season, a stint that began today at the team's Lake Forest College practice facility. The 6'2", 181-pound rookie netminder out of the University of Michigan was selected in the second round (17th overall) of January's 2006 MLS Supplemental Draft by the New York Red Bulls and later signed on as one of the League's three pool goalkeepers. While he will train with the Fire, Dzubay will still be eligible for a call-up from all 12 MLS teams. Dzubay made his mark with a fledgling Michigan Men's Soccer program, posting a career record of 36-24-5 in 70 appearances (65 starts) to go along with a 1.14 goals against average and 19 shutouts, including five in each of his last three seasons with the Wolverines.
