America’s Top Polo Player Injured Thursday
By Alex Webbe
America’s highest rated polo player, 9-goaler Mike Azzaro, was involved in a violent collision on the polo fields of the International Polo Club in Wellington, suffering a shoulder injury that would have an ambulance take him from the field with his Lucchese team leading Patagones 9-6 in the semifinals of the Iglehart Cup.
Azzaro collided with Carlos Avendano of the Patagones team at full speed, sending both players and horses tumbling down onto the field. Avendano shook off the fall and continued, but after over fifteen minutes on the ground, Azzaro was assisted off the field and left in an ambulance for an area hospital.
Azzaro was scheduled to play on the United States team that will meet England in Saturday’s 3pm Westchester Cup match. The oldest international competition in polo began in 1886, and is being played in the United States for the first time since 1939. Eight-goaler Jeff Hall is expected to take Azzaro’s place in the lineupzz