Russian women’s player announces ankle injury with NSFW photo

This past weekend Russian HC Spartak Moscow women’s forward Ulia Ushakova caused a bit of a stir online when both she and the team’s official Instagram account released a photo announcing her ankle injury. What’s the big deal, you ask? Teams do this sort of thing all the time? Well, true… but not like this. 

Check out Ushakova’s very NSFW announcement in which she lay naked on a medical table, wearing only her underwear:

Yowza! That’s certainly one way to reveal an injury…

The 28 year old Ushakova, it turns out, is also a body building athlete and works for the team’s television network. Here’s her account of things, taken from her own Instagram photo:

‘I twisted my ankle, two broken nails. My wrist will be corrected, and when I go for the manicure, the problem will be solved. I started the week badly.

‘I will solve the ‘women’s problems’ in terms of the degree of significance, first I’ll remove the wrinkles, then to the manicure. And the ankle itself will pass.

‘Let’s see how cosmetics works @celltense_russia. To all, a cool and positive start of the week!’

Since “revealing” her injury to the entire hockey world on Instagram, Ushakova has become something of a hockey Instagram influencer. She has ramped up her social media presence and has won herself thousands of new fans and it's easy to see why. I mean… just check out some of these shots:

Ushakova issued a much more tame injury update earlier this week, announcing that her ankle was full healed and that she's ready to return to action. "The ankle has recovered, everything in order," Ushakova said. "Start working with the group and prepare the next matches at home." Now we're just left to sit around and wait her her next injury announcement... not that we'd wish her any harm...

Of course, not everyone was pleased with Ushakova putting her body on display like this, several fans expressed their disappointment in the player and the club online. Most criticism seems to stem from the fact that this is an obvious ploy for attention from the player and the team and that it's borderline exploitive. What's your take? Just harmless fun? Or does this reinforce the stereotype of hockey as a testosterone fuelled old boys club?