February 23 – Eduardo’s Horror Break

MORE than getting the hairdryer treatment from Fergie, or being ‘merked’ by Rio, the one thing professional footballers fear more than anything else is getting a career-ending injury.

Their whole career can go up in smoke with just one mistimed tackle and these kinds of thoughts must have been going through Arsenal’s Croatian striker Eduardo’s mind today in 2008 when he had his leg broken early on in a match at Birmingham City.

The Brazilian-born Croatian international had been brought in from Dinamo Zagreb in the summer of 2007 and immediately looked at home in the Gunners attack, providing a clinical touch to a team that had often looked at bit toothless the season before.

The match was just three minutes old when Birmingham defender Martin Taylor mistimed his tackle on Eduardo and the striker was felled with what was clearly a serious injury.

Replays of the challenge showed Eduardo’s leg bending in ways it was never designed to and he received treatment on the pitch for seven minutes before being given oxygen and stretchered off.

Martin Taylor was sent off immediately while Eduardo was taken to hospital for emergency surgery, no doubt contemplating whether he would ever play again. He said a few days later: “I don’t remember the incident very well and it is not something that I want to see again on television or in the newspapers. All I remember is that when I fell I looked down at my foot and it had turned the other way. The rest is just a blank. It was an unfortunate situation but these things can happen in football.

“I am unsure of the extent of the injury and how long I will be out of action for but I know that I won’t be able to play for Arsenal for the rest of the season or be ready in time for the Euros this summer. But I’m not worried about that. My concentration and determination is on making as quick a recovery as possible.”

The match continued and ended in a 2-2 draw after Birmingham scored a late penalty to equalise while William Gallas turned into the Incredible Sulk, but all the talk was about Eduardo’s injury.

Arsene Wenger was practically foaming at the mouth in his post-match interviews. “The tackle was horrendous and this guy should never play football again,” he said of Taylor.

“It goes with the idea that to stop Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal and that kind of thing was waiting to happen,” he said. “Many people have got away with too many bad tackles. We’ve escaped a few times but it’s just not acceptable. If that is football it’s better to stop it.

“The worst thing you hear after is that ‘he’s not the kind of guy who usually does that’, but you need to only kill one person one time – it’s enough.”

Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish defender his player. “I’ve seen the challenge and, yes, the studs land on Eduardo’s ankle. In slow motion these tackles always look bad but he’s not a malicious player – Eduardo was just too quick for him,” he said. “The referee’s done his job, it’s a sending off, but Taylor’s not a malicious player.”

After Wenger had calmed down a touch, he retracted his earlier comments about Taylor. “I feel that my comments about Martin Taylor were excessive. I said what I did in the heat of the moment. It was a highly emotional afternoon and we were all shocked by the injury,” he said.

Last week, after almost an entire year out injured during which Arsenal’s title challenge fell by the way side and Euro 2008 went on without him, Eduardo returned to first team action for the Gunners against Cardiff in the FA Cup, scoring twice to allay any fears he had lost his sparkle.

“It was the best day of my life – it was a special moment to score, very emotional,” he said after the game.

You can see Eduardo’s horror moment about half-way through the clip below in amongst a veritable rogue’s gallery of terrible tackles.

Also on this day, one of England’s greats was taking to that big football pitch in the sky. We’ll be back tomorrow sports fans so don’t go a-changing.