Jonathan Klinsmann finished a Serie B match in April with a fractured first cervical vertebra and serious neck ligament damage, standing nearly motionless in his six-yard box for four minutes because he could barely turn his head. He did not know the full extent of what had happened inside his neck until he reached the hospital. He knows now.
The injury came on April 18 during Palermo's 2-0 home win over Cesena. Palermo midfielder Filippo Ranocchia's knee connected with Klinsmann's head as the 29-year-old dove for the ball. His scalp was cut. His ears were ringing. He got back up.
"I went to the ground and sat there for a second thinking, 'Ooof. That kind of hurt,'" Klinsmann said. "Then I rolled on my back and felt my neck just really tense up. It was like when you get in a car crash."
He thought he had a concussion and whiplash. He did not lose consciousness. He did not feel severely dizzy. So he stayed in goal. But as he began walking around the box, the muscles in his neck seized harder. He could not look down. He could not trap a back-pass.
"I told my centre-backs to just keep the ball," Klinsmann said. "Then I tried to stand as still as I could. I could barely move my neck, couldn't look down."
The scoreline saved him. Palermo led 2-0 and had no reason to press. Cesena's defenders kept possession at the back until the whistle. Klinsmann stood still and waited. Had a ball come back to him, had he been forced to dive or twist, the consequences almost certainly would have been worse.
"I'm genuinely not sure I would have walked away from that," Klinsmann said, speaking publicly about the injury for the first time. "It was bad — but it could have been an unreal amount worse."
An ambulance took him to hospital immediately after the final whistle. The emergency room sits next to Palermo's Renzo Barbera stadium, so the ride was short. MRI scans confirmed the fracture in his spine and the ligament damage. His season was over. His World Cup was gone.
"The MRI scans weren't too great and they said, 'It's a fracture in your spine. Your World Cup is probably not going to happen, your season is over,'" Klinsmann said. "I was thinking, 'OK, let's get through this.' But it was clearly a lot worse than just a fracture."
Klinsmann then flew to Germany for surgery. Together with his father — Jurgen Klinsmann, the former Germany striker who coached the U.S. men's national team from 2011 to 2016 — and his advisers, he chose to have the operation in Heidelberg. The procedure was complex and carried real risk. Doctors stabilized the fracture and the ligament damage. A few days after surgery, Klinsmann was walking cautiously again.
He could not use a pillow in the Palermo hospital because doctors needed his spine as straight as possible. He wore a neck brace from the moment the ambulance arrived. The pain in those first hours was severe.
The World Cup loss hit hard. Klinsmann had been named to the USMNT squad for the first time last August under manager Mauricio Pochettino. He did not appear in the September friendlies against South Korea and Japan, but the call-up was real and the door to the summer's largely home-soil World Cup was open. The fracture closed it.
A return this season is considered unlikely. He is still unsure about when he can return to football and has not given a firm date.
"This feeling of disappointment and anger is minuscule compared to how happy I am to be here and able to run," Klinsmann said.
He watched World Cup matches in person during the tournament and met up with Swiss national team player Cedric Itten. His love for the game did not go anywhere.
Klinsmann is the son of one of the most recognizable names in world football, but he chose to represent the United States — the country his father led for five years. His path to a senior cap was slow and his first real shot at a major tournament ended before he could take it. The neck is healing. The rest is a waiting game.
