If you could pick one injury plagued player to replay their entire career completely injury free, for your team, who are you taking?

[SAF is the GOAT]

Phenomeno without doubt

The poor guy had so many knee injuries, its just a tragedy.

Saw a charity game where he played with Zidane and scored 3 goals. I was pleasantly surprised to see him playing so well despite gaining weight. You Just can't buy class and he has it in abundance.

 

[Melbourne Red]

Harry Kewell was a magician before injuries made him a shadow of himself during what should have been his peak.

Robbie Fowler was sensational between the ages of 18-23, pretty good 23-25 and then a shadow of himself after that. Even so, he's a Liverpool great. feck knows what the subsequent years might have held.

 

[Red_Aaron]

Obviously I wouldn't actually pick this player in this scenario but Ive always wondered just how far Giuseppe Rossi could've gone in the game without a near constant run of injuries.

Watched a lot of him in the youth team and he just oozed class, was excited to see him step up but just couldn't stay fit. He managed maybe 4 full seasons in his career and averaged 20 goals across them for Villareal, that's no mean feat during peak la liga years

Always seemed like a good bloke too

 

[B20]

Answering for my own team as that is not nearly as boring as all the "r9 / van Basten" replies

Fowler. Has to be. Followed by Kewell. Then Owen.

Unexpected call - Smicer. Yes, he was soft as shit, but his best was actually really really good and he was always fecking injured and slow to pick up up after recovering. Whenever he he stayed fit for a bit of time, he was good, brief as it were.

more curious than anything, but redknapp would probably have turned out an impressive career with no injuries.

 

[B20]

Ledley King

Anderton surely?

 

[B20]

Forgot about Sturridge. Think he would be my second pick after Fowler. He was really going places.

 

[Oranges038]

Nah. He lost a yard and stopped being the domineering box to box player he was before. He became a better player as he aged, but a fitter Roy would have been unquestionably up there with the best ever.

I'm not sure I'd agree with that, the knee injury forced him to adapt, same as C. Ronaldo with his knee injury, he had to modify his game to become a more efficient and effective player.

Utd still won a treble and 3 titles on the bounce after that with him being a standout performer in the team. He also dragged Ireland to a world cup after his knee injury. So while he may have been a different player, his knee injury didn't really derail his career and make him less of a player.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

You’re going to have to take out a certain Brazilian for this thread to not become a homage.

Anderson?

 

[Hester_manc]

Ronaldo (from Brazil), Phil Jones (love to mention them together)

 

[fergiewherearethou]

Ronaldo and then Owen.

 

[Trequarista10]

Just to add something slightly left field to the topic: Ravel Morrison.

Not physical injury, but it has been publicly disclosed that he was diagnosed with ADHD (and speculated other illnesses and/or psychosocial issues). There's a push for mental health treatment to receive parity with physical health treatment at the moment, which made me think of it.

 

[AbusementPark]

Falcao, after that inury he was never the same again. R9 was the first choice but been said loads already so thought Id be different.

 

[FrankWhite]

Nobody's mentioned Martial

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

I'm not sure I'd agree with that, the knee injury forced him to adapt, same as C. Ronaldo with his knee injury, he had to modify his game to become a more efficient and effective player.

Utd still won a treble and 3 titles on the bounce after that with him being a standout performer in the team. He also dragged Ireland to a world cup after his knee injury. So while he may have been a different player, his knee injury didn't really derail his career and make him less of a player.

You can make a point that his injury forced him to become a better player. And that had he had not been injured he may have remained a more one dimensional player of higher impact and less control.

I’d side with the idea he’d still have done it all, but faster, stronger, and in more matches every year.

No saying where the truth lives though.

 

[DrRodo]

Vicente

 

[FrankDrebin]

Salas.

 

[Malkovich]

Why are people saying Adriano, his problem wasn't injuries.

 

[Toblerone92]

Anderton surely?

No, Ledley King. That’s why I said Ledley King.

 

[Buckie]

Tomas Rosicky. Little Mozart was such a fabulous player.

 

[mckenzie79]

Anderton surely?

I remember we were linked with Anderton every summer for 4 years.

On teamtalk on teletext it was immenent every 5 days

 

[Righteous Steps]

Tomas Rosicky. Little Mozart was such a fabulous player.

He was a splendid player, I think Diaby could have been decent without injuriesif we’re staying on topic of Arsenal players.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Anderton surely?

Ledley King would have been close to Ferdinand and Terry as a top cb in the world without injuries, did Anderton have that type of potential?

 

[mu4c_20le]

Why are people saying Adriano, his problem wasn't injuries.

Broken heart

 

[devlinadl]

Van Basten

 

[Buckie]

He was a splendid player, I think Diaby could have been decent without injuriesif we’re staying on topic of Arsenal players.

Yeah, Diaby is another one for sure. Wilshere as well. Sadly, there are many great players at Arsenal that had their careers ruined by injuries. Regardless of which team you support, these were players that played beautiful football and were so fun to watch.

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Ledley King would have been close to Ferdinand and Terry as a top cb in the world without injuries, did Anderton have that type of potential?

I think this is waffle. Mainly his mates gassing him up in the media as they feel sorry for him.

 

[Hoof the ball]

R9
Marco van Basten
Roberto Baggio
Del Piero
and since death is a sort of injury, Duncan Edwards.

 

[KirkDuyt]

Van Basten and Robben.

 

[MrMarcello]

I remember we were linked with Anderton every summer for 4 years.

On teamtalk on teletext it was immenent every 5 days

I vaguely recall reading some old media stuff that Anderton was basically a United player in late summer 1995, even held the 8 shirt open for him, but he changed his mind.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Van Basten and Robben.

Robben had a great career though it’s hard to see how it could have been much better. He even kept his pace way longer than most players. Missing 20 games a year seemed to help his longevity and played nearly all the crucial games in his career.

 

[Son]

It’s gotta be Ronaldo 9. No other player apart from Ronaldo and Messi would have scored like 500 goals for our club.

 

[Longlivekeano]

Michu

 

[doughole]

Arjen Robben ha missed almost 250 games with injury in his career! And counting...

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

Answering for my own team as that is not nearly as boring as all the "r9 / van Basten" replies

Fowler. Has to be. Followed by Kewell. Then Owen.

Unexpected call - Smicer. Yes, he was soft as shit, but his best was actually really really good and he was always fecking injured and slow to pick up up after recovering. Whenever he he stayed fit for a bit of time, he was good, brief as it were.

more curious than anything, but redknapp would probably have turned out an impressive career with no injuries.

Smicer pick reminds me of Patrik Berger. His career was full of injuries as well. I remember around 95 to 00 he was often touted as the biggest natural talent of that Czech generation, but also criticised for his mentality, having several feuds with managers. How good was he at liverpool?. i've watched a lot of Czech internationals from that era and you could see in most of those games at least why there was expectation on him: he was the one that usually produced the extra class needed to break down teams. i thought he was their best player in the Euro 2000 qualifiers, but he got sent off in the last qualifier and ended up unavailable for the two narrow groupstage losses against Netherlands/France that put Czech out. After that it looks like the injuries took completely over.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Fabio Paim

 

[tenpoless]

Alan Smith or..
Luke Shaw

Imagine both of them injury free.

 

[Robertd0803]

Robson.
Hargreaves.

 

[colombianmancunian]

Too many good choices like RVP, Ronaldo Nazario, Michael Owen. But I’d just have to go with El Fenómeno, I consider him the most talented 9 in history.

 

[kafta]

The obvious one is R9 . Would've love to see him at his best for longer.

My personal preference though would be Baggio. I often wonder how good he could've been had he not had all his injuries.

For United, i would've like to see more of Saha in full flow. What a talented player he was, but just made of glass.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

Chelsea fans will probably be saying Reece James in 5 years time.

Reece James might be the one in a few years. But hopefully his most recent OP turns out to be the solution to his problems.

Yeah hopefully actually having surgery fixes his issues instead of the bullshit management they've been trying.

Though for me it's still Michael Essien. Personally thought he was on course to be among the very best midfielders in the world but the ACL tears took their toll (or perhaps it was the fact that he kept coming back after less than 6 months post-surgery).