Tajon Buchanan Says His July 2024 Injury Felt Career-Ending
Tajon Buchanan says his July 2024 right-leg injury left him believing his career was over. The 27-year-old Canada winger broke the leg during Copa America, then spent months in rehabilitation after the blow that stopped his momentum.
“I’ve never told anyone this before, but I truly felt like my career was finished,” Buchanan said while reflecting on the injury and the work that followed. He spoke from his home on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain, in February 2025, after returning to the long grind of recovery.
Buchanan and Chrysanthou
Chrys Chrysanthou, Buchanan’s former youth coach and long-time friend, described him as a player who moves from one match to the next and does not like to live in retrospect. That mindset fits the way Buchanan has carried himself since his early days in Brampton, Ontario, where he grew up improvising acrobatic moves with his siblings.
His backflip celebration became part of that identity through his career in the Greater Toronto Area, at Syracuse University, in Major League Soccer and later in Europe. Buchanan said, “I’m able to express myself” when talking about stepping onto a field, and he added, “[The backflip is] me showing my love and my joy.”
Canada’s biggest moments
The same right leg that was injured in July 2024 had already driven some of Canada’s biggest moments. Buchanan’s right leg won Canada a penalty against Belgium in Canada’s first World Cup game in 36 years, and it delivered the cross that led to Alphonso Davies scoring Canada’s first goal at a men’s World Cup.
Chrysanthou summed up the collapse in momentum after the injury bluntly: “And then all of the momentum and all of the hard work – love for the game – everything just stopped.” For a winger whose game is built on movement and repetition, the setback cut across both form and identity.
Buchanan’s recovery now sits alongside the same career arc that carried him from Syracuse to Major League Soccer and into Europe. The injury did not erase the path that got him there, but it did force a pause on a player who had built his name on speed, flair and constant forward motion.
