Iron man Mick Kennedy with ‘selfie-wrist’? Pah!
Back in the 1980s I wasn’t short of heroes. The vast majority were sportsmen. I didn’t go for flamboyants such as Maradona, McEnroe or Higgins – my idols were full-blooded warriors such as Mick Kennedy, the hard-asnails Pompey skipper; England’s Captain Marvel Bryan Robson and his international teammate Terry Butcher.
Kennedy had me gripped the first time I saw him chop an opponent in half with one of his full-blooded tackles.
One footballer every schoolboy was aware of was Robson. He epitomised the era with his committed approach to the game long before it became a media product. He was tough as a pair of old Clarks and during my early years as a fan he was arguably the best player in the country.
Robbo always seemed to be crocked, although he would often play through the pain, a trait highly regarded in an age when machismo wasn’t something you got in Starbucks.
But it was Butcher, the unfussy centre-half who was a fixture of the England team who made the biggest impression. He was not the best defender to wear the Three Lions, but he looked better than anybody else in a blood-splattered white shirt.
Today, the injuries suffered by stars and celebrities are far less dramatic.
You will have heard of Kim Kardashian, even if you wish you hadn’t. The reality TV and social media ’star’ is one of the most famous people on the planet thanks to her ‘talent’ for taking pictures of herself which she posts online. Or at least she used to.
Turns out regularly pouting for the camera in a smartphone is bad for one’s health. Now she’s been forced to stop on doctor’s orders.
Yes, there is now a thing called selfie-wrist, which sits alongside tennis elbow and golf shoulder in the list of rubbish injuries. Real doctors have treated real patients for this most avoidable of ailments. We really have gone through the looking glass.
I haven’t met anybody with selfie-wrist and surely no right-minded adult would admit to it. Unlike Terry Butcher’s magnificent bloodsoaked jersey, selfie-wrist is not something we should cherish.