Last week I wrote about daft injuries picked up by footballers off the field. This week I thought I would broaden it out to all sports. Sportsmen are super fit and amazingly talented but they are also prone to do some stupid things on and off the field of play.
So with first aid kit and physio supplies at the ready let us delve in to the murky world of stupid sports injuries.
Dumb
There are clever sports people and there are some who let us say are a few breadcrumbs short of a loaf.
Take Adam Eaton, a baseball player, who stabbed himself in the stomach with a paring knife as he tried to open the cellophane wrap of a DVD. It is not the brightest way to open a DVD and I just hope it was worth watching.
Another baseball player Milton Bradley injured his anterior cruciate ligaments in his knee by simply having a moan at an umpire. Unhappy at a decision he was going to remonstrate with the official and his manager tried to stop him so that he did not get into trouble.
However, in the process of restraining him the gaffer caused Bradley to tear his cruciate in his right knee. I wonder if, as he put on his ligament knee support, he thought perhaps he should have just accepted the umpireֳ decision.
And Dumber
Another anterior cruciate ligament injury was suffered by Bill Gramatica, an American Football player, who whilst celebrating a kick leapt in the air. The leap was good, there was nothing wrong with the leap but the landing was bad and he missed the rest of the season.
For a pure slapstick moment you have to look at Bobby Cruickshank, a golfer in the thirties who mis-hit a shot to the hole but miraculously the ball hit a rock and took it towards the hole. Bobby was so pleased he threw his club in the air and thanked the lord.
You can guess what happened next. Yes the club came down and hit him on the head. Itֳ easily done (isnִ it?)
Dumbest
I say this is the dumbest injury but it is actually the most tragic and resulted in the poor man being paralysed. Slobodan Jankovic, a Serbian basketball player, playing in the Greek championships was, like Milton Bradley, annoyed at a refereeֳ decision.
In his anger and frustration he slammed his head on to the concrete post that supports the basket. As a result he fractured his neck, damaged his spinal cord and it left him paralysed from the waist down.
This was a calamitous way to end a career and he should have just remembered that ultimately it is only a game.