Eye Surgery For DeMerit

Jay DeMerit will undergo eye surgery on Monday to fix an eye infection that has impaired his vision over the last few weeks. The procedure will take place in London, which conveniently is where DeMerit plies his trade at the club level.

Originally, it was reported DeMerit cut his eye while taking out a contact lense. DeMerit, however, denies this and explained that he suffered a cut when something got under his contact lense. The cut then got infected and scar tissue developed, blurring the Watford centerback's vision. Without this surgery, DeMerit's vision would have likely remained permanently blurred.

DeMerit will have the scarred portion of his cornea removed by a laser and then replaced with either a donor cornea or an artificial polymer-based one. The cornea is the clear portion of the eye that covers the pupil. With this procedure, DeMerit is expected to miss one to two months, meaning he will not take part in the November friendly against Denmark. Assuming all goes to plan, though, DeMerit should be ready for action early next year. With the January friendly usually featuring a team largely comprised of fringe players, the USMNT will likely not play a significant friendly until February. That means that DeMerit has about 4 months to recover and then regain his form at the club level before any possible National Team duty.

With Oguchi Onyewu and Charlie Davies already out for extended periods of time, this latest news just adds to the frustration of many Nats fans. Fortunately, it appears that DeMerit will not miss too much National Team duty, assuming the surgery goes well. As someone with limited knowledge of optometry, I don't know the potential effects of such a surgery, but DeMerit seems upbeat about the procedure, saying "...we'll get it sorted out and I'll get back out there. That's the goal and I'm all confident that it will happen."