6 Words I Never Want to Say

I felt my eyeball pop out.

The most frightening injury came in 2003, during a game against Brazil. McBride dove over the top of a defender hoping to head a corner kick into the net. The defender threw his head back and caught McBride flush on the left cheek.

"I knew it was a hard hit. I ran with the trainer into the locker room." After some hasty repairs, the coach and the medical staff were ready to send McBride back into battle. And McBride was ready to go until he sneezed.

"I felt my eyeball pop out," he recalls. "I'm not saying it popped out like you see in a cartoon, but I could feel it move forward. So I told coach this might be serious." It was another fractured orbital floor. In all, McBride's still-handsome face contains seven titanium plates and the fading scars of more stitches than he can count. The injuries have deadened the feeling in his face, so much so that he says he scarcely felt the famous elbow in the Italy game.

Despite these injuries, McBride never shows fear or hesitation in going after balls with his oft-damaged skull. "He was, and still is, incredibly brave playing with the injuries he's had," said Moyes, the Everton manager.

In the U.S., soccer is viewed as a kids' game, a tame, mild-mannered sport. MLS thinks McBride can change the image.

"Hopefully, they'll see Brian and they'll see it's a sport for rough-tough competitive athletes," says Don Garber, a former NFL executive who is now the MLS commissioner. "In Chicago, people think of Dick Butkus and Mike Ditka and Mike Singletary when they think of tough guys. But those guys had helmets and shoulder pads. Brian is out there, same as them, in a very physical sport, but he has no protection. He's a true warrior."

6 Words I Never Want to Say