Secret behind me missing the second half of Foxes defeat by Wycombe
JUST my luck. To feed the millions who miss their football, the BBC filled an hour of airtime with Match of the Day highlights from three classic FA Cup quarterfinals at the weekend.
And the very first one they chose? Leicester losing at home to Wycombe in 2001, thanks to an injurytime winner from Roy Essandoh (scoring and celebrating, middle right), a striker who had answered the Chairboys’ appeal for fit and eligible forwards on Teletext.
There is a story behind my curtailed involvement in that game, and most people who were ribbing me about the result, after watching the programme on Saturday, don’t know the reality – so I’ll let you, and them, in on the secret.
I was substituted at half-time, but it wasn’t because of a poor challenge from Wycombe’s Steve Brown that wiped me out – although it didn’t help.
The day before the game, in training, I went up for a header and heard a crack in my knee as I landed. Although there was no swelling, which is usually a bad sign, I went to see the physio to get checked over.
After going through the normal tests, he said there was nothing obviously wrong. I went home, had a seaweed bath, took a few painkillers and passed a fitness test the next morning.
When the quarter-final draw was made, I must admit I was in the pub with a few of the Leicester players – and we cheered when we came out of the hat with the lowest-ranked team left in the competition by a long chalk. I guess the moral of the tale is that you should never take anything for granted in football.
After manager Peter Taylor’s team talk, when the pre-match buzzer sounded in the dressing room, summoning players to line up in the tunnel at about 2.53pm, I went to stand up and felt my knee lock.
For about 30 seconds, I was shouting, “Gaffer, I can’t move – I can’t stand up!” After some running repairs, I was able to unlock my knee, and I was desperate to play because it was a quarter-final, but it was still sore. I didn’t have my best game, although I nearly scored with a glancing header, and that tackle by Brown certainly didn’t help my mobility.
I spent most of the second half changing and feeling sorry for myself, and when I came out of the dressing room, the first thing I saw was Wycombe manager Lawrie Sanchez – who had been sent from the dugout by referee Steve Bennett (bottom right) – celebrating animatedly.
He had been following the last few minutes on a monitor in the tunnel in his brown overcoat, which was still soaked by the heavy showers over Filbert Street. While Sanchez was screaming at the monitor in delight, I was in tears because I thought my season was over.
Miraculously, despite scans revealing a 50 per cent bucket-handle tear in my meniscus,
I had an operation on my knee and was playing again just NINE days later, against Derby in the Premier League.
With football in lockdown, our man Robbie Savage goes behind the scenes of some of his most memorable matches to give a glimpse into the real life of a Premier League star.
FORMER Rangers star Sergio Porrini is in shock at the sheer scale of the pandemic that has paralysed Italy.
Porrini (above) found footballing fame with Juventus, winning the Champions League in 1996, before enjoying four successful seasons with the Gers, winning two league titles, a Scottish Cup and a League Cup.
Now 51, he is currently assistant coach of Albania, but is back in his homeland, grieving for the loss of his cousin Marco and watching on helplessly as his country is crippled by coronavirus.
An emotional Porrini said: “My cousin, Marco, was healthy and 42 and there wasn’t even a single sign he had any symptoms of coronavirus.
”It really is heart-breaking because it shows what coronavirus can do. It is not just the older or younger generations that are at risk – it is a threat to everyone. It really is scary. Now it is everywhere and who knows what is going to happen.”
Italy and AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini has also been confirmed with the virus, and Porrini added: “We’ve been stuck in the house for 12 days.
“We can’t do anything apart from maybe go out to get food, medical care or if you are still working.
“You can go to the doctor, chemist or the supermarkets, but everything else is closed.”
I nearly scored with a header.. but that tackle by Brown did not help my mobility