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Rookie Endures Multiple Sclerosis

Demitrius Omphroy is unlike any player in the history of Major League Soccer.

He has multiple sclerosis.

Toronto F.C. drafted Omphroy, a 21-year-old defender, in the second round of this year’s draft, the 26th pick over all, not knowing of his condition. The club signed him the week before the start of the season, but Omphroy has yet to see action through the first two games of the season. He played four years at the University of California, Berkeley, starting 35 of 70 matches, and also spent time training with Sporting Club de Portugal Juniores in Lisbon in 2006-7, when he was 17.

“I loved Portugal, it was a dream,” Omphroy said in a telephone interview. “They said they loved me and would follow through once I turned 18. But within a couple of weeks, I got sick. I started losing vision and some feeling in one foot. It didn’t prevent me from playing; it was just annoying. But I had to pack up and leave. My parents said my health was more important and that I needed to come home to be seen by my doctors. It was pretty devastating. I got freaked out; if I lose my vision I can’t play soccer at all.

“As corny as it sounds, M.S. prevented me from signing my first contract, but I have been able to overcome the disease so far and still sign a professional contract.”

M.S. is a notoriously difficult disease to diagnose. Omphroy learned he had it in February 2010. In addition to vision problems and numbness in his foot, he soon began to experience neck pain, what he called barberchair syndrome. A magnetic resonance imaging scan led a neurologist to say quickly that Omphroy had M.S., an unpredictable autoimmune disease that affects the brain and central nervous system. It is caused by damage to the myelin sheath, which protects and surrounds nerve cells. When the myelin sheath is damaged, nerve impulses are slowed down or stopped.

“Now I have to pay a lot more attention to taking care of my body, what I eat, what I drink,” he said, describing his form of M.S. as remitting and relapsing.

Omphroy gives himself a daily injection of the drug Copaxone in one of seven spots around his body.

“What’s most upsetting is that fact that you just don’t know what’s going to happen in the long term,” Omphroy said. “It’s very uncertain what your body could end up making you deal with. I don’t know if something could randomly happen or when I’m going to have an episode. You just can’t predict it.”

On the field, Omphroy sees himself as a right-side defender with a lot of attacking qualities. But during preseason training in Turkey and Florida, Toronto’s new coach, Aron Winter, had Omphroy playing as an attacking central midfielder, his position in college.

During his club and college career, Omphroy also spent time with several United States youth national teams. But since his mother’s parents are from the Philippines and his father’s family is from Panama, his international future is probably elsewhere. He trained with Panama’s under-21 national team last June and is awaiting citizenship from that country.

“I definitely think playing in M.L.S. and getting some exposure will bring opportunities, especially because those two countries don’t get many experienced players,” he said of Panama and the Philippines. “I see more opportunity with Panama.”

For now, Omphroy is focused on cracking Toronto’s lineup.

“I’ll just have to push myself a little bit harder in training and make sure the coach notices me,” he said. He added: “M.S. shouldn’t prevent you from living your life to the fullest. I’m going to keep going. It’s not going to stop me. If they ask me to be the poster boy to talk about M.S., I will accept it with open arms.”

M.L.S.

For the second consecutive year, stars from Major League Soccer will play Manchester United of the English Premier League. The game will be played at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., on Wednesday, July 27.

United’s return marks the seventh consecutive season in which the M.L.S. All-Star team has faced a British club (2005 Fulham, ’06 Chelsea, ’07 Glasgow Celtic, ’08 West Ham United, ’09 Everton, ’10 Manchester United).

Last summer more than 70,000 fans attended the All-Star Game at Reliant Stadium in Houston, a 5-2 win by Manchester United that ended M.L.S. All-Stars’ five-game streak without a loss against British opposition.

Notes

¶Striker Edson Buddle has left the United States national team ahead of a friendly match against Paraguay in Nashville on Tuesday and returned to Germany, where he plays for F.C. Ingolstadt of Germany’s second division. Buddle was on the bench during last Saturday’s 1-1 tie against Argentina in New Jersey but did not play. His departure leaves only Jozy Altidore and Juan Agudelo as the strikers available to Coach Bob Bradley.

¶In Brazil, the São Paulo goalkeeper Rogério Ceni scored on a free kick in the club’s 2-1 win against Corinthians. It was the 100th goal of Ceni’s career; 56 have come on free kicks, the rest on penalty kicks.

¶Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, has told officials in Brazil that they need to speed up the pace of preparations for the 2014 World Cup. “I must say that in comparison with the state of play between South Africa and Brazil three years before the World Cup, Brazil is behind South Africa,” Blatter told the Associated Press. “It’s a fact.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 18 of the National edition with the headline: Rookie Endures Multiple Sclerosis. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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