10 most unfortunate injuries to high-profile footballers

#7 David Busst - Compound fractures in the leg

In the injuries listed thus far, all have been damaging, but none so much to as to end a player’s career. But this was exactly the reality for David Busst when the Coventry defender slammed into Dennis Irwin in a 1996 league encounter with Manchester United.

Busst’s leg got trapped between Irwin’s and Brian McClair’s as he went for the ball, resulting in gruesome compound fractures of the tibia and fibula, the latter of which cracked and pierced the skin. With the match put on hold for a quarter of an hour and physios and paramedics alike rushed onto the pitch, blood pasted itself across the Old Trafford turf. Peter Schmeichel even began vomiting after he had a look at the injury. Schmeichel had to attend counselling for weeks afterwards to overcome the grotesque images on the day.

Although the casualty signalled the end of Busst’s professional career, he would have felt fortunate to be able to walk afterwards, given the fact he was once at risk of having his leg amputated after he contracted MRSA (an infection difficult to treat).

More than 20 operations later, and after several months in the presence of the Coventry squad, medical professionals advised Busst to retire, claiming he would never be able to replicate his former fitness. For many, this goes down as the worst footballing injury of all time.