The most bizarre injuries to footballers: tricycles, shin splints, cow attack or dropped lettuce

News from the Czech camp before the European Championships took the fans’ breath away. Michal Sadilek will miss the EURO because he suffered a severe shin injury and dozens of stitches while riding a tricycle. However, this is certainly not the first bizarre injury in football history.

Ondřej Zahustel

Let’s start on the domestic scene. Ondřej Zahustel was fighting for a place in Sparta Prague, but he was very unlucky to get injured. And when we say bad luck, we mean real bad luck.

After surgery on a broken femur he was released for home treatment, but when he tried to get out of the shower on crutches, both legs slipped, the bone crunched again and Zahustel had to have surgery again.

Marco Asensio

In 2017, a young talent named Marco Asensio started to make his mark in Real Madrid’s packed squad. Fans quickly grew to like him and were therefore very shocked when the Spanish winger was missing from the nomination for the first Champions League game of the new season.

The reason, however, was quite bizarre. Asensio had shaved his legs, which caused an infection to pop up on his calves and he was unable to put on his socks. A week after that, he couldn’t play in a game.

Santiago Canizares

Spaniards and shaving, not a good combination. After all, Asensio already had his predecessor, although the then number one of the Spanish national team got knocked out in a slightly different way. In fact, Canizares dropped a bottle of aftershave on his right leg in the shower just before the 2002 World Cup, severing a tendon.

“I believe that the best moments of my career will come and I will have a successful next World Cup,” Canizares proclaimed at the time. But at the EURO two years later, a young Iker Casillas jumped in front of Spain’s goal and never let him between the three posts again.

Dave Beasant

We’ll stay with goalkeepers who let things fall out of their hands for a while. Although he catches things for a living, Beasant, like Canizares, has put a considerable damper on his career by slipping through his fingers.

In fact, in the 1992/93 season, while shopping at the grocery store, Beasant dropped a jar of lettuce on his toe and, like Canizares, severed a tendon in his right foot. The then Chelsea goalkeeper sealed his fate at Stamford Bridge with that injury and never played in south London again.

Carlos Tévez

Even the former Manchester City or Juventus star striker has one bizarre injury to his name. When he returned to his home Boca Juniors in 2018, he didn’t forget his family.

So he went to prison to visit his half-brother, who is serving a 16-year sentence for armed robbery. But at the maximum-security prison in Cordoba, Argentina, he decided to play a game of street football with his brother and his cellmates, tearing his hamstring in the process. The boss of the famous club was furious at the time.

Sam Henderson

Just a month before Tévez’s muscle tear, one bizarre injury was also seen in Scotland. Sam Henderson, goalkeeper for Queen of the South, went for a walk in the countryside only to be hit by an escaped cow.

Yes, that’s what really happened, the cow injured Henderson’s shoulder and he still came out okay. “Sam missed training this week after being hit by a cow. It could have been worse because the cow ran at him a second time, but luckily he managed to avoid it,” assistant coach Dougie Anderson said at the time.

Bryan Robson

Imagine an angry Sir Alex Ferguson. Now imagine the look on his face when he heard about Bryan Robson’s injury. Before the 1990 World Cup, the United captain had been fooling around with Paul Gascoigne at a hotel and had pushed him off his bed.

The bed lifted a little and landed on Robson’s leg, breaking his thumb. “Gascoigne was like a child, always making up crap to amuse himself and others. He gave Coach Bobby Robson nightmares,” Bryan Robson recounted the incident in retrospect.

Alex Stepney

We’re going to be at Manchester United for a while. A proper goalkeeper must be able to loudly orchestrate the defence and, when necessary, shout the defenders down. But nothing must be overdone.

In 1975, during a game against Birmingham at Old Trafford, Alex Stepney shouted so loudly at his defenders that he blew out his jaw.

Michael Stensgaard

It is often said in the football booth that goalkeepers are a bit different. And maybe that’s why they attract bizarre injuries. Former Liverpool goalkeeper Michael Stensgaard has a story to tell.

In 1994, he actually dislocated his shoulder in training and, along with physiotherapists, struggled to get his shoulder back together. But when he arrived home, he wanted to remove an ironing board from the hallway, which was in the middle of the room. But when he picked up the board, his shoulder popped out again and the Danish goalkeeper had to go back to the sick bay.

Svein Grondalen

We already have a cow on the list, so let’s add a moose. The Norwegian defender was out jogging in the woods one day when he tripped over a sleeping moose. Logically, the moose was not happy about waking up and attacked Grondalen.

Although the Norwegian managed to run and hide, the moose managed to cut his left leg, which knocked Grondalen out of the World Cup qualifying match against Finland.

Alan Wright

At 162 centimetres, Alan Wright is one of the smallest defenders in Premier League history. While his height was not a problem in football and he made it to the highest level, his centimetres were a problem in his personal life.

In fact, the former Aston Villa player bought a luxury Ferrari, but it brought him a lot of grief. He didn’t adjust the seat properly and injured his knee while trying to reach the accelerator.

Ever Banega

The Argentinean “divoch” Ever Banega also had a problem with the car. In 2012, while playing for Valencia, he stopped at a petrol station to fill up his car on his way home from training. But he forgot to apply the handbrake, the car spun out and slammed his foot against the curb.

Banega suffered fractures to his tibia and fibula, and doctors had to operate on his ankle, which was also broken. The six months Banega spent off the field still seems merciful in the final analysis.

Source: Planet Footbal, X