Injury ridden young player who fulfil his potential.

[Isotope]

I have Tuanzebe in my mind when asking this question. Whether we go for another young centerback, or keep faith on him.

The Caf is loaded with football professors. There are plenty of injury-prone young players who either could not full his potential, or stay injury-prone for the rest of his career. It would be nice to see some trend on the other way, from football history (on any positions).

Thanks.

Edit: sorry if there's a thread already. Please merge at your convenience, mods.

 

[Pow]

Van persie and robben struggled with injuries when they were younger but turned it around.

 

[edcunited1878]

This is kind of on the edge of "young" player....but I'd go with Arjen Robben.

He had good spells with Chelsea and obviously before joining them, but injuries derailed him and he was in limbo in terms of his career going either way for the most part at Chelsea...then I think he not only fulfilled his potential but exceeded it.

 

[Isotope]

Totally forgot about Robben that cheeky young old man. @Pow @edcunited1878 .

RvP was another case. But it did take him long years to turn things around.

 

[Pow]

Totally forgot about Robben that cheeky young old man. @Pow @edcunited1878 .

RvP was another case. But it did take him long years to turn things around.

Tbf robben was always a quality player even at chelsea, him and duff were a menace on the wings. But he couldnt handle being overly kicked here and left took him a while but eventually got over it but it was always only about getting him on the pitch never his form. Sort of the opposite of hazard who was kicked up and down the country for 7 years was rarely injured now barely gets a game cause hes never fit.

 

[Maluco]

A very young Roberto Baggio suffered a bad knee injury as a youngster at Vicenza. He went to Fiorentina and did the same knee again.

I remember reading that it was something like over 200 stiches to repair the ligaments the second time around and he was still only a teenager.

He turned out pretty well in the end

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Joe Gomez had a number of very serious injuries when he was coming through and has played at a very high level.

 

[Ibi Dreams]

Think I'm right in saying that Messi had some injury problems as a teenager. He was exceptionally fit and healthy for most of his career after that though

 

[ThierryHenry]

Gerrard

 

[poleglass red]

Giggs had big problems with his hamstrings when he was younger, I believe he himself said he nearly quit at 27, yet he went to play top level football until he was 39/40

 

[Rozay]

Iron Robben.

 

[HTG]

Robben never really got over his injuries. They were always there, even in the later stages of his career. He just somehow didn’t care. The most amazing thing about him was, that he barely needed time to catch fire after an injury. He could be out three months and hit form right away.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Giggs had big problems with his hamstrings when he was younger, I believe he himself said he nearly quit at 27, yet he went to play top level football until he was 39/40

Getting a better car and doing yoga helped apparently

 

[Isotope]

Think I'm right in saying that Messi had some injury problems as a teenager. He was exceptionally fit and healthy for most of his career after that though

Messi? He had problem with growth. But I don't think that's considered inury-ridden though.

 

[Pexbo]

Getting a better car and doing yoga helped apparently

It was the supercar clutches that were stressing his left hammy wasn’t it?

 

[Isotope]

Giggs had big problems with his hamstrings when he was younger, I believe he himself said he nearly quit at 27, yet he went to play top level football until he was 39/40

Doesn't mean that until he's 27 y.o., his injuries were still bothering him?

 

[Champagne Football]

Robben never really got over his injuries. They were always there, even in the later stages of his career. He just somehow didn’t care. The most amazing thing about him was, that he barely needed time to catch fire after an injury. He could be out three months and hit form right away.

Survived testicular cancer too. What a man

 

[Hoboman]

Varane

 

[Isotope]

Survived testicular cancer too. What a man

Didn't know that. That's actually incredible.

 

[Isotope]

Joe Gomez had a number of very serious injuries when he was coming through and has played at a very high level.

It seems like he's fit only last season? And probably starting this season too.

 

[SWE-Chucky]

Recoba had some terrible injuries but still had a decent carrier.

 

[limerickcitykid]

Didn't know that. That's actually incredible.

Didn’t know it because it isn’t true. He had a lump and was told it may be cancer and may need surgery on it. Ultimately, after tests it wasn’t cancer.

 

[alexthelion]

RvN?

 

[Wittmann45]

Rooney had ankle issues and broke his metatarsals in both feet three times before he was 22/23.

However, OP did mention players that stayed relatively injury free after an injury plagued youth so this may not apply as I remember Rooney always seemed to have constant injuries to his hamstring/groan/ankle throughout his career, especially frustrating when it always seemed to happen when he started to hit form after recovering from his previous injury

RvP was another case. But it did take him long years to turn things around.

Yeah, that is a good shout. He was always a great player, but it also must have been so frustrating for himself and Arsenal having to deal with constant injuries. I seem to remember that he started getting healthier around the time Henry left for Barcelona.

 

[AltiUn]

Regarding Tuanzebe, there was a lot of reports that the reason he was out for so long was because he was having surgery to resolve a recurring issue so fingers crossed that his injury woes may be behind him.

 

[Don't Kill Bill]

Paul Mcgrath ?

 

[Remember the geese]

Regarding Tuanzebe, I think Smalling was quite injury prone early in his time with us. Perhaps not quite as bad as Axel, but at times it felt like a toss up between whether it would be him or Jones that would be out.

 

[Snow]

Eiður Guðjohnsen. Was the next hot ticket along with his striker partner Ronaldo at PSV. Got a horrible injury that left him out for almost 2 seasons, docs told him his career was over. Ronaldo goes to Barcelona, Eiður goes home to Iceland and gets laughed at for being the "fat kid in KR". Bolton didn't forget about him and took a punt on his abilities over his fitness like they did so well back then and got rewarded since Eiður had done his due dilligence to get his ankle back in shape.

At least he got to play against his dad once back home even though they never got to play together. They were going to play together for Iceland but Eiður replaced the dad as a sub against Estonia because the plan was for them to play together for the first time back in Iceland in the next NT match. Between those matchers and Irishman breaks his ankle in an U18 match.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Regarding Tuanzebe, I think Smalling was quite injury prone early in his time with us. Perhaps not quite as bad as Axel, but at times it felt like a toss up between whether it would be him or Jones that would be out.

He still is injury prone, not only when he's "young" but definitely not worst ala Jones level. But you're right, in a way, Smalling does fulfilled his potential.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

So far it seems the popular choices here are attacking players.

Defenders?
Wes Brown for me. Fulfilled his potential. He was massively overrated as a youngster though, I'm not seeing it. He can definitely be that good as a defender which he did and proved it from 15/16 onwards until his peakest at RB in 17/18 once he get over his injury issues. His flaws/weaknesses are clear from the very start.

Hopefully Axel can get over his injury issue, sooner the better. I still maintain we should try to get another CB. Seriously though, it's a bad gamble/decisions makings to only rely on one injury-ridden youngster for our long term CB planning.

 

[acnumber9]

Joe Gomez had a number of very serious injuries when he was coming through and has played at a very high level.

He’s also regularly injured.

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

Van Nistelrooy tore his ACL in the summer of 2000, signed for United in the summer of 2001, the rest is history.

Not sure if he qualifies as he wasn't exactly injury ridden other than that but It's the best ACL comeback I've seen with Zlatan maybe.

 

[Ivor Ballokov]

Didn't Darren Fletcher have a few injury hit seasons as a youngster?

 

[Cal?]

Messi was injured quite often in his first couple of seasons, rarely injured ever since.

 

[AsonUnique]

Still early and Barca are a mess but Dembele has played pretty well after several injuries. Still too early to see if he can stay healthy but if he does he has ridiculous potential.

 

[markhughes]

Ryan Giggs had a pretty rough time with his hamstring in his early days, hence the tights and Yoga. I have a feeling he would have moved on/retired years before if it wasn’t for yoga.

 

[B20]

He’s also regularly injured.

How many injuries has he had since his last big one?

 

[nuanced]

Danny Ings went to Liverpool when he was a 23 year old promising player. Spent majority of his time there on the injury table and then struggled to break into their team. He finally started fulfilling his potential at Southampton when he was 26.