Tibs Injured Footballers FC

Tibsnews.com looks at the most injury-prone players in Premier League history. There will be some familiar names in the team and if you have any suggestions on who could make the bench, we’d like to hear them. Here it is, FC Injured:

Club Name: Borussia Done-my-back-in

Stadium: Stadium of Plight

Formation: 4-4-2

Tactics:– Avoid tackles from Roy Keane, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Michael Brown. Avoid over-enthusiastic movement.

Line-up:

Goalkeeper – Chris Kirkland, The Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper always threatened to break into the England squad. As a youngster he was tipped to be number one but after a plethora of injuries to his back, fingers, ankle and collarbone Kirkland has seen his career wane.

He made a single England appearance as a substitute against Greece in 2006 which landed his Dad ten grand in a 100/1 bet which he put down when his son was only 11.

Most recently Kirkland was attacked by a Leeds fan in October 2012 continuing an agonisingly unlucky career which promised so much.

Left Back – Fabio Aurelio, The Brazilian who was released by Liverpool in May 2012, is considered one of the most injury prone players in Liverpool history.

According to reports he spent 50% of his Liverpool career on the injury list. A few of those injuries include Achilles tendons, adductor muscles and hamstrings.

Some of the reason for his injuries is that he was playing for football with kids, which resulted in him being out injured for two months.

In 2010 he followed Rafael Benitez out of Liverpool, which seemingly and probably should have ended his Premier League career but Roy Hodgson had other ideas and resigned him, he spent a total of 23 months injured at Liverpool, in only five seasons.

Centre Back – Jonathan Woodgate, The Middlesbrough defender once found himself at Real Madrid but the highly-rated defender was in the injury room far too often at the Bernabeu making only nine appearances in a three year stint.

Luck wasn’t on Woodgate’s side either, on his Madrid debut, he scored an owl-goal against Athletic Bilbao and was later sent-off.

Constant injury woes meant he was restricted to only eight England caps and he separated spells at his beloved Middlesbrough by playing for Tottenham and Stoke.

Centre Back – Ledley King,  Dodgy knees saw the former Tottenham defender end his career prematurely after a simply torrid time with injury.

The centre-back, with undoubted talent, hadn’t properly trained since 2008 before retiring at the end of 11/12 season. He often turned-out for Tottenham on match days with outstanding performances despite his lack of practice.

With no treatment for his enduring knee problems, King retired in 2012 to take an ambassadorial role at White Hart Lane.

Right Back – Wes Brown, Brown was once hailed by Sir Alex Ferguson as the ‘best natural defender the club has had for years’ and the former Manchester United defender, who’s now turning out for Sunderland has had chronic knee problems which have restricted his career.

Brown’s last match was against Middlesborough in January 2012, with his knee issues constricting him again, he’s now close to a return and this could be his last chance to play regularly with the 33 year-old in the twilight of his career.

Left Midfield – Harry Kewell, Another career which was ruined by injury at Liverpool, the Australian started out in the Premier League with Leeds where he made over 180 appearances.

After Leeds financial demise in 2003 Kewell moved to Liverpool for a fee of £5 million, in his first term with the reds he was joint second top scorer with Emile Heskey with seven goals.

With injuries occurring early on his career, the problems came to a fore when in the 2005 Champions League final which Liverpool won against AC Milan. Kewell started the final but was substituted with an adductor tear, which Liverpool fans thought he faked, booing Kewell as he left the field.

This was beginning of his problems and spent the remaining three seasons with Liverpool on and off the pitch with groin injuries among others; he appeared in a second Champions League final in which Liverpool lost 2-1 to AC Milan.

He then spent his final season and Liverpool on the treatment table and moved to Galatasaray in 2008 before moving to Melbourne Victory in his native Australia in 2011, he’s now a free agent at 34 years of age.

Centre Midfield – Owen Hargreaves, The injury stricken midfielder has played for both Manchester United and Manchester City, quite an achievement and usually a move that surrounds controversy, Carlos Tevez for one will know, but Hargreaves moved from red to blue without much drama at all, after-all he made less than 30 appearances for both clubs combined due to horrendous injuries, meaning it didn’t warrant too much commotion when he moved in 2011.

The former Bayern Munich talisman who moved to Manchester United for 17 million quid and played a role in their double winning year, as well as appearing for England in the 2006 World Cup.

Extreme knee problems and tendonitis meant he was restricted to barely any appearance during his spell in the Premier League, the Canadian-born player even resorted to YouTube to publish videos of his fitness to attract new clubs.

Centre Midfield – Jamie Redknapp,  The Sky sports pundit and son of Harry Redknapp, used to be a classy midfielder, playing his trade for Bournemouth, Liverpool, Tottenham and Southampton. His career, however, was destroyed by injuries, 19 separate operations for Redknapp meant whilst he was brilliant on the pitch; he didn’t spend much time on it.

He was forced into early retirement at the tender age of 32 following knee problems, a broken leg and many others. He still made 17 appearances for England and over 300 career games.

Right Midfield – Keiron Dyer, The winger who was released by QPR in the 2013 January transfer window, has had a career filled with bad luck with several different injuries, he started his career at Ipswich town before moving to Newcastle for 6 million in 1999. He then moved to West Ham for the same price in 2007.

His knee, hamstring and leg injuries meant he only made 30 appearances for the Hammers, in a four year spell. He’s now a free agent after playing under ten games for QPR this season.

Centre Forward – Michael Owen,  The exciting teenager who looked to be England’s future saw his far disappear in front of him following several serious injuries which meant he lost his pace, stripping him of his playing style.

Owen started his career at Liverpool where he helped them to several pieces of silverware including a treble of trophies in 2001 meaning he won the Ballon d’or the same year. He scored 118 goals in 216 games for the Merseyside club and moved to Real Madrid for £8 million in 2004.

He then moved to Newcastle for 16 million where he spent four years on Tyneside making 71 appearances, injuries dogged his career but he still found new clubs most recently playing for Manchester United and now Stoke City.

Owen has appeared for England 89 times scoring 40 goals, Most will remember the goal which elevated him onto the international scene when he banged in a goal against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup. Without doubt Owen would have been the most capped England international if he could have remained fit.

Centre Foward – Dean Ashton,  At 26 Ashton was a highly rated centre forward who looked to have an international career at his feet but during England training in 2006 where he was set to make his debut against Greece. A heavy tackle by Shaun Wright-Phillips saw an end to that prospect and Ashton suffered an ankle injury which hampered and ultimately ended his career prematurely in 2009.

By Peter Howard

@pierrehowardo

Picture supplied by: SuperMF