During the Chelsea Vs. Hull match yesterday, Hull’s Ryan Mason had to be stretchered off the pitch following Gary Cahill’s accidental horrible collision towards Mason’s head during an aerial challenge. Hull then said in a club statement that Mason has a fractured skull and is now in stable condition. Following Mason’s injury, we look back at 5 horrible injuries in football that people may not know of.
- Marcin Wasilewski
Before the Polish defender became a part of Leicester City’s fairytale title win, there were serious doubts about his playing career due to the extent of his injury.
During a match between Wasilewski’s Anderlecht and Standard Liege on 30 August 2009, Wasilewski was looking to win a loose ball when Liege’s Axel Witsel accidentally stamped on the Polish defender’s leg that resulted in an open leg fracture.
Witsel was given a straight red card and an eight-match ban while Wasilewski was out for nearly a year.
- Luis Garrido
During a 2018 World Cup qualifying match on November 2015, Honduras’ Wilmer Crisanto stumbled onto Mexico’s Javier Aquino. However, Aquino accidentally fell on Luis Garrido’s leg that resulted in the leg bending into the opposite direction.
Upon seeing the extent of the injury, both sides immediately called for the medics and Garrido had to be stretchered off.
Garrido was out for a full year after it was known that he had suffered a dislocated knee and damaged four ligaments.
- Ewald Lienen
This is possibly the worst injury in Bundesliga history. It was only the second matchday of the 1981-82 season when Werder Bremen’s Norbert Siegmann committed a rash challenge on Arminia Bielefeld’s Ewald Lienen that resulted in a ten-inch open wound on Lienen’s thigh, in which the bone can even been seen.
What made this amazing is that Lienen immediately got up and walked to confront then Bremen manager, Otto Rehhagel, who Lienen thought encouraged Siegmann to be aggressive in the foul.
It was only four weeks later that Lienen was back on the pitch. The aftermath of the injury was so bad that the police was tripled and even the criminal investigation department was present for the return fixture in that same season. Lienen & Siegmann reconciled 31 years after that incident.
- Patrick Battiston
How Harald Schumacher, the Germany goalkeeper, escaped punishment for taking out France midfielder Patrick Battiston, we will never know.
It was a vital semi-final match in the 1982 World Cup when Battiston was through on goal, only to find himself getting brutally bodychecked by Schumacher.
As a result, Battiston suffered a broken jaw that needed wiring back, damaged vertebrae and losing four of his front teeth.
- Dave Busst
Regarded as the most infamous and the worst football injury of all time.
With only two minutes gone between Manchester United and Coventry City on 8 April 1996, Coventry’s Dave Busst went forward for a corner and looking to win the ball following a good save from Peter Schmeichel, he collided with United’s Denis Irwin and Brian McClair that resulted in Busst having a double compound fracture on his right leg.
The injury was so bad that the bone pierced out of the skin and blood spilled out of it. Schmeichel was reported vomiting after seeing the extent of that injury and needed counseling for the next few weeks.
Busst even faced the prospect of having his leg amputated, but thankfully he is still able to walk. However, he never fully recovered.
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