World Cup 2026 highlights and moments missed overnight as Canada squad shaken by horror injury | OneFootball

Fans Stateside were treated to more standout matches, but what did UK watchers miss out on?

The second round of group stage fixtures at the World Cup continued overnight and UK watchers, thankfully perhaps, will have missed out on witnessing a horror injury in real time.

Co-hosts Canada won their first-ever World Cup fixture and in some style too, thumping Qatar 6-0 with Jonathan David scoring a hat-trick to put himself right in the running for the Golden Boot award.

However, the victory was overshadowed by a serious injury to Ismael Kone, who was rushed to hospital with a suspected broken leg.

Kone was fouled by Qatar’s Assim Madibo close to the dugout, with Canada manager Jesse Marsch saying everyone on the bench “could hear the bone snap”.

Marsch said: “I haven’t spoken to Ismael yet, he’s at the hospital, he will prepare for a surgery. I’m going to see him after this press conference.

“We’ll see exactly what we decide to do for him. His family is with him at the hospital. It happened right in front of the bench – everyone could hear the bone snap.

“Your heart goes out to him, and everybody’s a little shaken by the experience, because of the nature of the injury and also because Ismael is a big part of the team.

“You saw also that he was waving to the crowd and almost making everybody else feel at ease with the fact that he’s injured, and that’s an incredible statement about Ismael as a person, but this is (also) our team.

“I’ve been trying to tell people for two years about the special character of this group, and it gets highlighted in moments of challenge and in moments of glory.

“Today was a representation of all of that, and you got to see how the team, everybody was crushed when it happened, but we had to find a way to stay focused. We knew that Ismael wanted us to finish the job.”

Madibo was sent off for the tackle after a VAR review to reduce Qatar to nine men, following Homam Ahmed’s first-half dismissal.

Meanwhile, Marsch and Qatar boss Julen Lopetegui had a testy exchange after the match with Cyle Larin and Nathan Saliba also on target in addition to an own goal by Mohamed Manai to seal an historic win for Canada.

Elsewhere, fellow World Cup 2026 co-hosts Mexico have become the first team to qualify for the knockout stages after a 1-0 win over South Korea.

Luis Romo scored the only goal of tense encounter in Guadalajara, capitalising on a loose ball spilled by South Korean goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu after a collision with defender Lee Gi-hyuk in the penalty area, to ensure Mexico reached the last 32 with a game to spare.

As such Mexico will finish top of Group A – the result ensuring they will play on home soil in the last 32 and last 16 should they progress that far.