World Cup co-hosts Canada have suffered a serious blow with star midfielder Ismael Kone stretchered off after suffering a broken leg against Qatar in Vancouver.

The 24-year-old received the ball and turned to pass back to his defenders, with Qatar’s Assim Madibo tripped up by the change of direction as he stuck a leg out to challenge Kone.

But his trailing leg caught Kone at the wrong angle and the referee blew the whistle for a foul, only for attention to quickly turn to the Canadian as he held his left leg and ankle.

A nearby Qatari player waved for medical attention before putting his hands on his head in disbelief.

Cameras cut to Kone before realising the extention of the damage — and even he could not believe his own eyes, seemingly disassociating in shock as he covered his mouth.

“This looks serious. This doesn’t look good,” Casey Stoney said in commentary.

Tensions initially simmered over between players as medical staff worked to clear space to help Kone.

“It was an instant reaction from both sets of players,” Paul Scott said.

Stoney added: “It was, the nearest player looked very concerned — players with their hands on their hands, they can see that something is seriously wrong.”

Madibo protested his innocence and shook his head, clearly struggling himself over having caused the injury.

“Madibo looks quite distressed,” Stoney said.

“You go into tackles with an intent to win the ball, not to harm anybody.”

Canada’s Tajon Buchanan checked in on Madibo, whose yellow card was upgraded to a red — Qatar’s second of the day — by VAR.

Canada already led 3-0 at the time of the incident.

Kone, boosted by a green whistle for pain relief, sat up in his stretcher to wave to the crowd as he left the stadium.

Canada coach Jesse Marsch revealed after the match he “could hear the bone snap” from the touchline.

“Your heart goes out to him, everybody’s shaken for him,” he said, confirming he planned to head straight to hospital to visit Kone after the press conference.

Kone’s mother Suzanne is with the injured star as he waits to undergo surgery, while Marsch also added Madibo visited Canada’s locker room to apologise.

Following the delay during the match Nathan Saliba struck a wonderful free kick to score Canada’s fourth goal in the 64th minute, but the celebrations were muted.

He made an ‘8’ gesture with his hands before holding up and kissing a Kone jersey in tribute to his mate.

Canada added a fifth goal in the 75th minute before Jonathan David wrapped up his hat-trick in stoppage time to seal a 6-0 win.

It was their first ever victory at a World Cup and the flood of goals tripled their overall tally, after registering one in last week’s opener, two in their three matches in 2022 and none in their pointless appearance on debut in 1986.

The co-hosts now sit top of Group B with a superior goal difference over Switzerland, who earlier won 4-1 over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Canada and Switzerland will play off for top spot in the final game of the group stage.

Qatar, who held Switzerland to a 1-1 draw in the opening game, will face Bosnia and Herzegovina with the winner a chance to progress to the knockout rounds as one of the eight best third-placed teams.