Egg explosions and dodgy sneezes: Five completely bizarre injuries suffered by footballers
Huge sneezes and egg mishaps are the highlights as we look at five of the most bizarre injuries footballers have suffered.
Anthony Gordon did not quite make the cut; imagine how ‘miffed’ Gareth Southgate would have been if he’d done any of these…
Victor Adeboyejo – Violent sneeze
Our inspiration was Bolton striker Adeboyejo, who recently suffered an injury from what has been described as a “pretty hefty sneeze” by his manager, Ian Evatt.
Adeboyejo already had a rib issue after a challenge during a match against Charlton, but this was exacerbated by a big ol’ sneeze that added discomfort to his back as well as his already sore ribcage.
Evatt said: “He was okay at the time, but then he had a pretty hefty sneeze. Victor is a powerful boy, and even his sneezes are powerful. I’ll have to start having a long look at myself when players start getting injured sneezing.”
Fun fact: a sneeze is an eighth of an orgasm.
Rio Ferdinand – Gaming for too long
Footballers are not known for being the brightest bunch. Their lack of brains means anywhere is dangerous, even their own home. Even while playing PlayStation lying on the couch. That was something Rio Ferdinand learned during his time at Leeds United.
It takes a certain kind of person to prefer Pro Evolution Soccer to FIFA so we are not surprised in the slightest that it was Ferdinand’s favourite game. It is easy to lose sense of time when gaming and Rio must have done just that to be sat with his feet up on the coffee table long enough to suffer a tendon injury in his knee. I have done three 24-hour livestreams sat on the PS5 and not come close to doing anything like that.
It was an injury that then manager David O’Leary said summed up the club’s season. Ferdinand missed a match against Newcastle United as a result. Leeds lost 3-1.
Ever Banega – Ran over by…himself
The majority of these freak injuries don’t seem to rule players out for more than a week. That was not the case with Ever Banega in 2012 when he got run over by a car. Don’t fret too much, it was not a hit and run.
After parking up at a petrol station, then Valencia playmaker Banega did not set his handbrake properly and his car rolled straight into his ankle, breaking it after being trapped.
Banega was ruled out for a whopping six months through his own negligence. Valencia said in a statement: “The player Ever Banega has suffered an accident with his own car after training on Sunday when he received a trauma to his left leg that caused a fracture to his tibia and the perone bones.”
A Sky article at the time followed the club’s statement with: ‘Valencia are set to face Stoke City in the second leg of their Europa League clash on Thursday’. What a world we used to live in. Before woke.
Kirk Broadfoot – Egg explosion
Cooking eggs can be a real b**tard. Just ask Kirk Broadfoot.
Type ‘Kirk Bro…’ in to Google and the top search result is ‘Kirk Broadfoot egg’. The reason being is that he was ruled out for Rangers back in 2009 after an egg explosion scalded his face. ‘Shell shock’ and ‘egg on your face’ were obvious lines and the media quite rightly did.
Broadfoot has since said he was already injured and it was a glass explosion that cut his face, not a combination of egg and boiling hot water, with someone at the hospital selling the fabricated story to the papers. But Rangers manager Walter Smith did confirm the egg story, saying: “He’s got some facial burns but he should be OK.”
Darius Vassell – Being very, very daft
There is no misfortune here, just pure silliness.
Vassell had blood under an infected toenail and was in excruciating pain, so decided to take matters into his own hands by attempting to drill his big toe.
Unsurprisingly, this didn’t work and Vassell missed several matches for Aston Villa.
Want more where this came from? Planet Football have 21 freak injuries right here…