Canada's Ismael Kone Suffers Gruesome Injury, Leaving Players Distraught

Canada has waited decades to celebrate the Canadian men’s national team’s first win at a World Cup.

The CanMNT have only qualified for three World Cups (1986, 2022, ’26) and earned their first-ever point by drawing with Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 12. It became clear early in their match against Qatar in Vancouver that Thursday would be the long-awaited day to erupt over a CanMNT World Cup win.

Canada held a dominant 3-0 lead when midfielder Ismaël Koné suffered a gruesome leg injury in the 57th minute. After much consternation and justified outrage by Canadian side, Qatar’s Assim Madibo, who was distraught by the harm he’d caused, was shown a red card.

Koné was stretchered off to applause, and by the looks of his leg, we will sadly not see him again on the pitch in this World Cup. Sports can be so cruel.

Seven match minutes later, Canada’s Nathan Saliba, who had come into the match to replace Koné , knocked in the team’s fourth goal of the match and emotionally held up Koné’s No. 8 jersey afterward.

The CanMNT won 6-0 when all said and done, and their home fans did erupt in cheers that had been suppressed for decades. But the otherwise momentous evening was tinged with heartbreak for Koné.

Koné, 24, was born in Ivory Coast but moved to Canada as a young boy and grew up in Montreal. He developed in the CF Montreal academy and made his first-team debut for the MLS club in February 2022. He currently plays his club football for Sassuolo in Serie A. This was his second World Cup appearance for the CanMNT, debuting in Qatar in 2022.

The Canadians will carry heavy hearts into their match with Switzerland on June 24 to wrap up group stage play, but they’ll assuredly be galvanized and dedicate the remainder of their 2026 World Cup run - already the best in the team’s history - to Koné.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 8:39 PM.