The Plague of Injury

By Dominic Vieira

Every footballer wants to play.

All footballers can all run, jump and shoot. All players enjoy being part of a winning team. But how many players suffer a huge injury throughout their career? How many players end up not being able to run, jump, and shoot? How many players have to watch their teammates lift up trophies whilst they are in crutches?

Unfortunately, injuries play a negative role in football. Nobody wants to suffer them or injure another player opposition. Injuries are regarded as the worst moments in a footballer’s career, especially those who spend months (or years) on the sidelines suffering. The span of a football player’s career is short, and being told that they have to end their career early is a huge psychological and physical blow to take.

Imagine telling a 20-year-old he can no longer play football? Fortunately, medical treatment in football has improved tremendously; this has enabled players to continue playing after being told that they can’t play anymore. The beautiful game has become more demanding, and as players play more games they are put under more pressure and their muscles and bones need to be highly specialized. Therefore, the chance of an injury is excessively high. The individual player is not the only person who suffers from the injury but also the teammates, manager and the fans lose out.

The majority of players bounce back from a serious injury mentally and physically stronger, but sometimes that is not the case, the injury ends up destroying a football player’s career. In this article, I have closely studied 4 players’ career-altering injuries.

Ronaldo:

The Brazilian superstar has a very unlucky right knee. In 1999, against Lecce, he ruptured it and immediately underwent surgery. After several months away from the field and completing a rapid recovery, O Fenômeno returned to the fields on April the 12th, 2000 against Lazio. Just several minutes after his return Ronaldo found himself on the floor in pain, once again with his right knee injured, but this time it was worse than the last time. This injury ended his hopes of playing in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. 20 months later Ronaldo was back and earned a place in the 2002 World Cup winning team. The story does not end here. In 2008, whilst representing AC Milan, Ronaldo suffered another injury; this time it was his left knee and was sidelined for another 9 months. The striker was not expected to recover from it, but once again, he regained his fitness. However he also gained weight. Ronaldo is currently playing for Corinthians in Brazil, but is not in Dunga’s plans for the 2010 World Cup.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær:

He must be the unluckiest Norwegian in the world. The striker was star for Manchester United and after 7 glorious seasons the unimaginable happened on September 16th 2003 against Panaithinaikos. A knee injury put the Baby-Face Assassin out of the game for several months. He made a “full recovery”, but did not really return as the same player. By February 2004, he was back on the pitch. Unfortunately, in August 2004, Solskjær underwent intensive knee surgery and didn’t play the entire following season. In December 2005 Solskjær was back; he frequently played for the reserves and then went on to make several first team appearances. In March 2006, in the FA Cup against Charlton, Solksjaer broke a cheekbone and missed the remainder of the season. In August 2006, he scored his first league goal since 2003 and it looked as if the Super-Sub finally returned to action. It was a good season for him as he scored numerous goals for United, although he also had to undergo minor knee surgery halfway through the season, but it was nothing serious. However, during the summer,  he went under the knife once more, and was never able to fully recover. He decided to retire from the game. Solskjær is a Manchester United fan-favourite and it was a shame that the goal scorer did not enjoy the later years of his United career. Thankfully, the club did not abandon him as Ole is currently the manager of the Manchester United Reserves.

Mantorras:

Benfica signed the talented striker from Alverca at the young age of 19 and a great future lied ahead of the Angolan star. After a brilliant first season with Benfica, Mantorras had a terrible second one; a traumatizing knee injury put Mantorras out of action. He returned 2 and half years later having undergone 4 surgeries! But Mantorras was not the same. He lost his pace, skill and sharpness which used to illuminate the stadium and fans. Nowadays, Mantorras makes irregular appearances for Benfica. The fans love him and Benfica have been excellent to him; they did the right thing by not getting rid of him. It’s a shame to be at a young age and see your dreams and ambitions taken away from you. Whenever the striker makes an appearance for the club the fans still chant his name and he is one of the most popular players at the club. Mantorras was part of the Angolan national team for the African Cup of Nations 2010, he came on once in the tournament and the fans went wild.

Rubén de la Red:

At the age of 23, Rubén had to put his career on hold and may never return to the field due to a heart condition. Rubén was a successful product of the Real Madrid cantera, but was unable to break into the first team. During the 2007-2008 season, he was sold to Getafe and had a terrific season. Even though he was uncapped for Spain, his brilliant performances earned him a place in the Spanish Euro 2008 winning squad; he scored a goal against Greece in the competition. Real Madrid re-signed the talented midfielder as there was a clause which allowed them to do so. Things were going wonderful for the player, but on October 30 2008, he collapsed in a Copa del Rey match against Real Unión. Since then he has been unable to return to action, as Rubén is forced to complete rigorous medical exams every 2 months and is nowhere near kicking a ball again. Unfortunately, Real Madrid is trying to cancel his contract to save money.

Other players who have suffered major injuries are:

Ben Collett - never got to play a game for Manchester United

Jorge Andrade – not played since 2007

Djibril Cissé – successfully recovered twice from bad injuries, and is now playing regularly in Greece for Panaithinaikos

Kieron Dyer – may have to enter early retirement

Dean Ashton - forced to retire at age of 26

Gabriel Milito – successfully recovered from injury

Owen Hargreaves – returned to the game 1 and half years later

Please feel free to comment below. What are your thoughts on the tragedies that are football injuries?