In the early minutes of the England versus San Marino World Cup qualifier the San Marino goalkeeper Simoncini barged in to Theo Walcott. The tackle, if you can call it that, caused outrage amongst the England management and left the Arsenal winger with a chest injury which means he misses the next game against Poland.
Harald Schumacher
The commentator for ITV Clive Tyldsley made reference to Harald Schumacher the West German goalkeeper in the 1982 World Cup who famously seriously injured the French midfielder Patrick Battiston.
He deliberately collided with the Frenchman to stop him scoring as Battiston was through on goal. The challenge left Battiston unconscious, he lost two front teeth and it seriously damaged his back. To add insult to injury no free kick or yellow card was awarded by the referee for the incident.
Paul Gascoigne
Gazza was the best English footballer of his generation by a mile. He had a prodigious talent and was one of the greatest players this country has ever produced. It is such a shame that his brains lay in his feet as he sometimes did some stupid things.
In the 1991 FA cup final he decided to make a lunge at the Nottingham Forest full back Gary Charles. It was an ugly challenge but our Geordie hero came out worse and suffered a serious knee ligament injury as a result.
Instead of getting the glory at Wembley he ended up in a hospital bed needing serious knee surgery and months wearing a ligament knee support.
Roy Keane
This was not so much a tackle as vengeance. Keane wrote in his autobiography that Alf-Inge Haaland had infuriated him when the Norwegian had said the Irishman was faking injury after the two had clashed in the 97-98 season.
So when they faced each other in the Manchester derby in 2001 Keane was determined to exact his revenge. He wrote, Ӊ֤ waited long enough. I… hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that…Ԝn
Haaland suffered a knee injury because of the incident and still suffers from knee pain to this day.
Graeme Souness
These days he may be one of the best pundits on Sky but when he was a footballer he was one of the hardest men on the pitch. You could say he was the Roy Keane of his day.
While playing for Rangers against Steaua Bucharest in 1988 Souness doesnִ just lunge at his opponent he rams his studs into Gheorge Rotariu. What makes the tackle worse is that the Scot than tries to claim to the referee that he had been fouled after almost disembowelling his opponent.
Fortunately the Romanian just needed the physio to do his magic with his physio supplies and he played the rest of the game.
Benjamin Massing
The legendary ITV commentator Brian Moore described this tackle as, ӡ brutal assaultӠand that is the best description of it.
In the 1990 World Cup match between Argentina and Cameroon the Argentinean striker Claudio Caniggia has evaded two challenges and is heading towards goal when the Cameroon defender Massing literally leaps feet first into the striker and brings him down.
It was not so much a tackle and more of a Karate kick. Caniggia was fine and Massing went for an early bath.