Top players whose careers have been marred by frequent injuries

Injuries are a part and parcel of sport and most coaches at the grass-root level will tell youngsters to shrug it off and show some grit. However, they can be a little more than pure bad luck in international football as the demands of the game are extremely high and gym fitness is a necessity than a luxury.

Some injuries can leave a player starved of the speed that he once had, some can make him particularly vulnerable to more injuries. Injuries can ruin a player’s career and sometime it’s all the more unfortunate because the player who is at the end of it had special talent. While bad luck and misfortune can rarely be averted, a player can always stay in the best shape possible so that he is able to deal with an injury as best as he can when it comes.

There are so many examples of such incidents that it seems useless to even offer a single one. Therefore here is a list of players whose careers were ailed by frequent injuries either never took off or collapsed after a promising start:

Owen Hargreaves

He’ll be there on every such list that talks about injury plagued players, for he was certainly a talent gone to waste. The defensive midfielder, who has the quality of working tirelessly in the center of the pitch till he earned the possession for his team, was a regular in the Bayern Munich side from 2001 to 2007 and made 145 appearances for the club winning trophies and grabbing accolades.

Even though his time in Germany was not without a share of injuries, it was more than enough to exhibit the amount of talent that he had. Just when he looked bound to step one level up, he broke his leg in 2006-07 and was soon bought by Manchester United inspite of having spent a season on the bench. He had a remarkable first year winning the Champions Trophy with the Red Devils and played all 120 minutes in the final but that was to be the last bit of success.

His next season was hampered by a recurring patellar tendinitis problem and underwent surgeries of right knee in 2008. It was merely a career punctuated by false injury updates after that. He made a short lived return in November 2010 but was taken off the pitch just six minutes into the game due to a hamstring injury.

He offered to play a season without pay at United once his contract expired but Alex Ferguson decided he would pass and that opened the door for Owen to join Manchester City. He made just one league appearance for the club and was released at the end of the season.

Michael Owen

Michael Owen won everything possible with Liverpool and his career, even though cut short of true greatness by the injury plagued last half, is a remarkable achievement in itself. As a 17 year old, he was pipped to be the next big thing in English football and proved himself by winning two consecutive golden boots in 1997-98 and 1998-99.

The workload that he was taking as a young teenager has been cited as the source of his hamstring problems. Owen scored over 150 goals for the Anfield giants and after an injury plagued season in 2003-04, joined long-time suitors Real Madrid. The dream move turned out to be a damp squid and he was moved to Newcastle after a single season where he was to suffer from a series of injuries.

In December 2005 he broke a metatarsal bone. He suffered an ACL injury during England’s World Cup campaign in the very first minute in a game against Sweden in 2006 and that kept him out for an entire year. A thigh injury and a double hernia problem would prevent him from major participation in Newcastle’s 2007-8 campaign.

Owen moved to Manchester United in 2009 where he spent three injury plagued seasons but earned a place with the fans by scoring a key goal in the sixth minute of additional time against rivals Manchester City to give the Red Devils a 4-3 win. Sir Alex Ferguson was very vocal about the ‘loss of true greatness’ that the player suffered due to his time at Liverpool sparking a controversial debate.

Abou Diaby

The promise and potential of Abou Diaby is what has earned him the unfailing trust of Arsene Wenger inspite of a horror injury record. The footballing skills are nowhere lacking – deft first touch, superb ball control and insightful vision with matched execution – he has everything that is needed to make a good midfielder in Premier League football.

However, he has had eleven injury issues in the past three years and the most recent one is a knee ligament injury that is likely to keep him out of football for another eight-nine months. It remains to be seen if he can flower from hereon but he is certainly a player whose massive ability has suffered at the hands of bad luck and bad physical constitution.

Tomas Rosicky

The Czech Republic midfielder has been called the ‘little mozart’ for his imaginative ability in the midfield. He can look really good when he is pulling the strings but his career at Arsenal has had several unwelcome pauses. He continues to enjoy to the trust of Arsene Wenger and has show signs of resurgence every once in a while but the injuries have dampened his spirit so much so that it is difficult to see him putting one good season together.

He missed the entirety of the 2008/09 campaign thanks to a hamstring injury. On 26 February 2012, he scored his first goal for Arsenal in two years and played an influential role in the rest of the campaign that season but was struck down once again at Euro 2012, ruling him out for another six months. It remains to be seen if he can make a better future for himself at the club.

The list goes on and on. The likes of Ledley King, Jonathan Woodgate, Dean Ashton, Michael Essien could also feature on this list.