ouch

I don't know about you guys, but I suddenly went into a sudden craze and started digging up pictures of horrific football injuries. Whichever football website you read, you might have encountered two injuries that rate as 'one of the worst of all time'. I remember watching the video of Henrik Larsson breaking his leg quite recently.

Then, there is the clear 'winner'. Without a doubt the worst ever injury on the pitch. The one David Busst. No, I did not watch it as it happened - I hadn't even started watching football then. However, in one of the preview shows leading up to a league weekend a few seasons ago while Coventry were still in the Premiership, they did a special interview with David Busst. That of course include a video clip of the said injury, which somehow got past the Censorship Board even though parts of Terminator 2 got censored.

Well, for the uninformed, here are a few quick points about the injury (blatantly ripped off from football365.com)

Only those of you with a strong constitution should continue reading.

Busst’s injury, suffered at Old Trafford as a Coventry City player in 1994, is widely regarded as the most horrific seen on these shores.

Even a quick resume of the facts surrounding the injury is enough to turn the stomach:

- Shattered, Busst's right leg was broken to such an extent that it was turned back at an angle of approximately 90 degrees with both his tibia and fibula snapped in half.

- Upon seeing the injury, ManYoo's Peter Schmeichel vomited on the pitch. Traumatised, Schmeichel required counselling.

- Busst required 22 operations just to have his leg saved from amputation.

- The match was delayed for around fifteen minutes while the Old Trafford groundstaff cleared away the blood.

- Brian McClair, reputedly close to tears, continued to hold Busst's hands as he was stretchered off. The player, who now works for Coventry City, later told The Daily Telegraph: "I could see the crowd clapping and cheering in sympathy but I couldn't hear them above the noise of my screams. It was frighteningly painful and I knew that something major was wrong. It felt as though a part of me which should have been there was missing."

- To quote from the newspaper: 'At Hope Hospital, Salford, Ross [the surgeon who first operated on the player] gently removed Busst's boot, before peeling back sock and shin-guard to reveal a shard of bone sticking through the bloodied skin midway between knee and ankle like a white arrowhead. Still fully conscious, Busst then experienced the unique sensation of shattered bone being manipulated back inside his leg and straightened before an external splint could be fitted and a pain-killing injection finally administered.'

- Busst has never played football again and still walks with a limp.

And after much effort testing my patience in Google, I finally managed to find a picture of the horrific injury...

(click for the full sized image)