Netherlands soccer star Danielle van de Donk looked like she was going for gold in the 50-meter freestyle in the midst of a 1-1 draw with the U.S. Women’s National Team in the World Cup on Wednesday night.
Van de Donk was sporting a black swim cap in the middle of the July 26 soccer game after banging heads in the 94th minute with U.S. star Rose Lavelle in pursuit of the ball.
So why did the 31-year-old midfielder look like Katie Ledecky out there? It had to do with the bleeding from the cut on her head.
Why did van de Donk wear a swim cap during the World Cup game against the U.S.?
Van de Donk sustained a head injury when she collided with an opposing player and put the swim cap on to reduce the bleeding.
“The scalp has a lot of vasculature in it,” Dr. Marie Schaefer, who is part of the sports medicine department at the Cleveland Clinic, tells TODAY.com. “A lot of the blood flow comes to the scalp, and cuts in that area are hard to stop because they require a lot of pressure to keep everything from bleeding.”
The 31-year-old midfielder was still wearing the cap after the game when she told reporters that the unorthodox gear was necessary to keep her on the field.
“Yes, it is OK,” she said in Dutch about her injury, according to ESPN. “A lot of blood, so I can’t take it off. Unfortunately.”
Did van de Donk wear the swim cap for a concussion?
No, van de Donk had to wear a swim cap during the Netherlands-U.S. Women’s World Cup Game because she was bleeding from her head.
“The compression provided by the swim cap helps stop the bleeding and also prevents blood from getting on the player’s jersey,” the medical staff of NJ/NY Gotham FC, a team in the National Women’s Soccer League, said in a statement to TODAY.com. “If blood appears on a player’s jersey, the player…
Read the full article here
