Minnesota United has signed a potentially versatile depth piece with an impressive youth background to try to help the club during the second half of the 2024 season.

The Loons have inked 25-year-old attacker Samuel Shashoua to a contract through the end of the season, with club options for 2025 and 2026, the club announced Wednesday.

Shashoua was in Minnesota on Wednesday and can begin training with the Loons immediately, but he will not be eligible to play in MLS games until after the summer transfer window opens July 18.

Shashoua was out of contract in Spain, so MNUFC did not need to pay a fee to order to add him to the roster.

Shashoua was born in London to an American father and FIFA changed his affiliation to the U.S. from England in 2022, according to the Associated Press. He has a U.S. passport, so he will not occupy an international roster spot with MNUFC.

MNUFC likes the upside potential of the Shashoua, with one comparison being Ismael Tajouri-Shradi, whom the Loons added for the second half of last season and he contributed to three goals in 347 minutes.

Shashoua played for Albacete in the Spanish second division, La Liga 2, playing only 254 minutes and not contributing to a goal last season, according to fbref.com. Shashoua had three seasons with Tenerife in La Liga 2, where he had 15 goal contributions in 3,751 minutes, per fbref.com. The stats site had the right-footed player him down for playing multiple positions in 2024, and that potential versatility is valued and often utilized under head coach Eric Ramsay.

Shashoua represented England at the youth national team level, including the 2016 Under-17 European Championship, and was a member of the Tottenham youth system, playing for its Under-18, 19 and 21 teams.

“Samuel has experience having already competed at a high level at the early stages of his career and has intriguing attacking attributes,”  Chief Soccer Officer and Sporting Director Khaled El-Ahmad said in a statement. “We welcome Samuel and look forward to see his growth and contribution to the team this summer.”

As chronic kidney disease rises nationwide, a new study partially conducted in Orlando suggests weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could be part of the solution.

The pharmaceutical-industry-backed study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed more than 3,500 people with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease for an average of 3.4 years, including several in Orlando. One group was given weekly injections of semaglutide, the main ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, and another was given placebo injections.

The double-blind clinical trial found that kidney disease progressed more slowly in those taking semaglutide compared with those taking a placebo. They were less likely to need dialysis or a transplant.

The group taking semaglutide also had an 18% lower risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes and a 20% lower risk of death.

“This is a groundbreaking trial because it addresses this very high-risk group and provides this benefit across the spectrum of risk — kidneys, hearts and lives,” said Dr. Richard E. Pratley, a study co-author and senior investigator at the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute in Orlando.

It’s easy to forget that Ozempic wasn’t originally intended to help celebrities shed pounds for the red carpet, a diet craze that has fueled a global shortage.

Drugs with semaglutide work by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone that causes the pancreas to release insulin and makes people feel full.

The drugs are FDA-approved to help people with type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugar, to help obese people lose weight, and to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke in obese or overweight adults with cardiovascular disease.

Pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, creator of Ozempic and Wegovy, funded the study and has already shared plans to use the trial’s results to apply with the Food and Drug Administration to expand the drug’s uses.

It’s likely that after this study, at least one of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide drugs will get FDA approval for treating kidney disease too, Pratley said.

Kidney disease has become more common in recent years as rates of diabetes and high blood pressure rise. Florida alone has seen a 28.3% increase in people living with kidney failure since 2009, according to the American Kidney Fund, with over 50,000 in 2022.

About 35 million Americans have kidney disease, and 800,000 live with kidney failure.

Once this drug is approved to help, the next hurdle will be convincing doctors to prescribe it. Medical professionals can be suspicious of changes to the status quo and are sometimes reluctant even to administer already-established therapies for kidney disease, Pratley said.

Several studies have found that cost also deters some people from taking medication to manage their chronic kidney disease.

“There are a whole lot of people out there with kidney disease, and not so many people who are actually on these potentially kidney-saving therapies,” Pratley said.

That being said, questions still remain. For instance, why does Ozempic slow kidney decline?

“The short answer is: we don’t know, but there’s a lot of theories,” Pratley said.

Diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease are often interconnected, so it’s not unreasonable to suggest that a drug that targets one helps them all.

The kidney has receptors for the molecule Ozempic is derived from, which could play a role, he added. Ozempic and drugs like it also decrease inflammation, which is linked to both kidney and heart issues.

“It could be a combination of small contributions of all of these different factors,” Pratley said.

Future studies may examine whether the drug can protect people who have kidney disease but don’t have diabetes. They may also attempt to reach more diverse populations: Most of the study’s participants were white, but kidney disease disproportionately impacts minorities.

Ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com

By JONEL ALECCIA (AP Health Writer)

Cucumbers contaminated with salmonella bacteria may have sickened and hospitalized dozens of people in at least 25 states, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.

Testing detected salmonella in a cucumber distributed by Fresh Start Produce, of Delray Beach, Florida, which last week recalled whole cucumbers shipped to certain states from May 17 to May 21, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Further testing is underway to see if that strain of salmonella is causing the outbreak. The produce should no longer be available in stores.

The CDC received reports of 162 people sickened with salmonella potentially tied to the cucumbers in 25 states and Washington, D.C., between March 11 and May 16. At least 54 people were hospitalized, the agency said. No deaths were reported.

Consumers should not eat recalled cucumbers. People who bought cucumbers recently should check with the store where they purchased them to see if they’re part of the recall. Wash items and surfaces that may have been in contact with the produce using hot, soapy water or a dishwasher.

The CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also are investigating an outbreak of a second type of salmonella that has sickened at least 158 people in nearly two dozen states to see whether it’s connected to the same food. The outbreaks share several similarities, the agencies said.

Salmonella can cause symptoms that begin six hours to six days after ingesting the bacteria and include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Most people recover without treatment within a week, but young children, people older than 65 and those with weakened immune systems can become seriously ill.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.