Break a Leg

Is my mind failing me? Because I don’t remember such havoc when somebody else was injured (apart from Becks and his metatarsal thingy).

In case you’re all wondering (again) what I’m talking about, it’s about a footballer’s injury and its circumstances. Sometime around two weeks ago, Arsenal’s Eduardo da Silva (da Silva, is that his surname) was injured badly during--his leg broke in two places--a match against Birmingham City. Arsene Wenger was, quite naturally, very furious, even went on by saying that Martin Taylor (the one who committed the foul) didn’t deserve playing football ever again, or something like that. In the end, he took back his words, but what’s said has been said.

What’s unbelievable is how the press is making such a big fuss of it. I mean, come on, give us a break! Nasty as it was, injury is inevitable in football. Sometimes you injure yourself, sometimes someone takes that liberty from you. Sometimes someone injures you intentionally, sometimes they don’t. In Eduardo-Taylor case, Taylor did what he did out of sheer stupidity and clumsiness (no one with the right mind injured someone from the opposing time on the third minute into the match!).

And a smart guy like Wenger should’ve thought twice before he said anything, considering that he once had the likes of Viera and co. in his team. And we all know that their tackles were anything but gentle.

So, what’s the point in pointing out how bad Eduardo injury is and how brutal Taylor’s challenge was? Such things happen everyday in football, don’t they? Day-to-day business becomes something of high importance because it gives the press a chance to delve upon it, even though there’s nothing to delve upon in the first place. No wonder football supporters in England have so much antipathy towards the press.

Note: The worst injury I’ve ever seen is one that befell a Coventry City player (name forgotten), who was injured by Denis Irwin. It was nasty and bloody. The injury ended his career permanently, and Manchester United participated in a charity/commemorative match for that player. The last that I saw of him was when he was coaching Coventry’s U-12 (or something) team. I hope he’s doing well, whatever he’s doing right now.