Players held back by injuries

lumeyes

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Adam Lallana was becoming a top player before injuries hit.

I thought our own Phil Jones was destined to be a top ball playing CB before injuries completely derailed his career. It didn't help that he was played out of position a few times, when he hadn't even mastered his natural position. The reason I don't like hearing the talks about Axel or Lindelof playing as a DM :)
 

duffer

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Chelsea (the saviours of football) fan.
Kieron Dyer.
Damien Duff (the man I'm named in honour of).
Just did a search because I remembered a quote from Duff...
There's a screw in there to keep my left knee together, there's no tendon in my right foot. I can barely kick a ball with my left foot and know there's a knee or hip replacement coming down the line."
"When I wake up in the morning, I can barely move my left knee. It's the price you pay, I guess."


Duff admitted that a lot of these knocks could be attributed to overtraining. He was. after all, an absolute workhorse as a player, and he confessed to picking up one of the more debilitating injuries while he was training when he really wasn't supposed to be.

"I worked too hard in my career. I wasn't clever with my workload. The day my knee went… that was in training. And it was never the same again. But the thing is, I was meant to be off that day."

"I'm like a car, I guess. I ran myself into the ground. I remember Jose Mourinho one day telling me to calm down. 'If you water the flower too much, it'll die. Go home and rest' Jose said. He was right, of course. But that was just the way I was. I wanted to be as good as I could be."
 

KranjskaKlobasa

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Haris Vučkić, snapped by Newcastle as a teenage prodigy and then got hammered by injuries. Now he is trying to salvage his career in Netherlands.
 

fps

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Another vote for Wes Brown. He had everything to be one of the very best, so unfortunate.
 

Lyricist

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I strongly believe Reus could've been third place behind Messi and Ronaldo for at least one Ballon d'Or ranking.

Check out this compilation of Reus only against Real Madrid:
 

Mastadon

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Diaby looked so good when he was fit.. he wasnt fit often but he sure knew how to play football. First Pogba version.
Diaby was never going to be a top class player he was average-poor most of the time apart from one good game against Liverpool. He had some flash moves but he was mostly ineffective. People initially compared him to vieira because of their physical similarities but I never rated him. Played enough games to show he wasn’t good enough yet got such a long contract despite rarely playing.

Iwobi was better than Diaby.
 

dablem_10

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Roberto Baggio, his knees were smashed
Tomas Rosicky, probably knows Diaby a lot
Phil Jones, always when gets near first 11
Van Persie, what player he was even through those injuries
Arjen Robben, and still kept that pace
Ledley King, best chronic injuried player ever of PL
 

RedPed

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Rafael. Always thought he could've been great for us.
Very underrated due to his injury record but loved this guy at United.

Another of my favourite United players robbed by injury was Alan Smith. Was great when he first came to United.

We also never got the best of Robin van Persie which was a shame. Such a classy player. Not really held back but also hampered at Arsenal.
 

RedPed

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Oh, and the recently retired Micah Richards has to get a mention.
 

awop

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Diaby was never going to be a top class player he was average-poor most of the time apart from one good game against Liverpool. He had some flash moves but he was mostly ineffective. People initially compared him to vieira because of their physical similarities but I never rated him. Played enough games to show he wasn’t good enough yet got such a long contract despite rarely playing.

Iwobi was better than Diaby.
That's an interesting opinion right there.:annoyed:
 

0le

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Fletchers time at the top was cut short due to his chronic illness.
 

knot_buzz

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Fletchers time at the top was cut short due to his chronic illness.
Good shout.

He had just really started to cement a spot in midfield too.
 
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lawliet354

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Kaka and Reus definitely. I still believe Kaka could win another Ballon D'or after 2008 if he's injury free, he doesn't have crazy nightlife and parties like other Brazillian player and he never had any issues with work ethic.

Reus also looks like future Ballon d'or winner the first year he was at Dortmund, could also won 2014 WC as well.
 

PaulRich

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Going back a bit here but:

Paul Lake;
Michael Bridges;
Neil Webb post Achilles was never the payer he could have been for us IMHO.
 

Scroto Baggins

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Ledley King is a good shout. Hard to know how good this guy could have been with 2 working knees rather than one. Even with one knee he was immense.

Jack Wilshere, admittedly he liked the party lifestyle a bit too much. But even if he was a dedicated professional his body was made of glass.

Phil Jones, Erik Lamela, Daniel Sturridge
 

Welby5

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Brazilian Ronaldo. Such a shame his injuries affected his career.
Yes, even when Ron was only 17, Bobby Robson saw big injury problems ahead for the lad. The way he could accellerate to top speed so quickly, then stop and turn in a stride. The rapid twisting and turning of his legs to dribble out of tight spots when surrounded by several players. It was kind of a freakish and extreme way of playing, so it's no real surprise his body struggled to cope at times.
 

paraguayo

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Pato. Milan Lab ruined him by bulking him too much
 

lysglimt

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Looking at United-players - the names that stick out for me: Rossi, Saha and Hargreaves that have been mention - and in addition Paul McGrath who was better than most other defenders despite not training. Norman Whiteside who Ferguson wrote in his book only lacked a bit of pace to be world-class. BUT - according to Whiteside himself, he was really quick in School but already then the injuries hurt him and he lost a bit of pace.

Non-United - I would say Alan Shearer. If you watch Shearer before his injury, the guy was Lightning quick in addition to everything else. Afterwards he was just a brilliant striker, but he wasn't as quick as he was before
 

roonster09

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Rossi, Saha.

Rossi was so good and was linked with Barca move, after that injuries just ruined his career.

Saha would have been such a great player for us if not for injuries.
 

RedSky

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Ronny Johnsen
Goddamn it, thought i'd be all smart and mention an oldie and there's fecking Carl sneaking in ahead of me.

He was bloody great, shame his injuries fecked him. :(

Agreed on Reus as well, he was going to be an elite player until his injuries.
 

fps

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Non-United - I would say Alan Shearer. If you watch Shearer before his injury, the guy was Lightning quick in addition to everything else. Afterwards he was just a brilliant striker, but he wasn't as quick as he was before
Yes, he's one of those funny ones where, because he came back to a still-prolific level after the injuries, people forget just how good he was before them, when was one of the complete centre forwards of world football.
 

ThierryHenry14

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the most talent football player that is ruined by injury for me must be Diaby.

Brazilian Ronaldo is another one. He was not the same anymore after his knee injury, but he still went on having a great career with RM.
 

montpelier

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Was watching one of the PL years the other day can’t remember which season but Eduardo was looking like a very good player for Arsenal before Martin Taylor’s horror tackle.
As an aside here. Taylor's tackle was markedly worse than the Shawcross one (imo).

Taylor never attracted the same amount of stick somehow.

1 - apologised & did better in the aftermath
2 - profile & not the inbuilt Stoke animosity
3 - wasn't 2nd incident carrying some resentment from 1st one too