19 years (and 26 ops) after this tackle, I’m left with horror scars
“I was left with one big tendon but I had lost four of them”
IT IS now 19 years since David Busst suffered the sickening broken leg that shocked the world of football and ended his Premier League career. But only now have pictures of the former Coventry defender’s terrible scars, caused by the injury and the subsequent MRSA virus that might have cost him his leg, emerged.
Amazingly, Busst, now director of Coventry’s football in the community programme, still plays over-35s football and goes in for challenges that ‘make my dad absolutely cringe!’
But the photographs of the vivid damage to his right leg, tweeted by talkSPORT presenter Andy Goldstein after Busst appeared as a guest on his Sports Bar show last Friday, are stark evidence of what Busst has faced since that day at Old Trafford on April 8, 1996. Just two minutes into the match, Busst collided with United players Denis Irwin and Brian McClair, suffering compound fractures to both the tibia and fibula of his right leg.
The match was delayed for nine minutes before Busst was carried off while water and sand were used to clean his blood from the pitch.
United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel was reportedly sick on the pitch after seeing the injury and required counselling afterwards, as did a number of other players.
Recalling the moment, Busst said on talkSPORT: ‘I was on the pitch 87 seconds when I got injured. Irwin came off the post I think and McClair came from behind and in that split second it was just the impact of two forces, one going one way and one the other.
‘I knew something serious had happened; something wasn’t in the place it should have been. I could see from the reaction of people around me. I’ll never forget Dion Dublin, he was just bent down with his hand on his head, the look of horror in his eyes.
‘I didn’t look down, you go into shock mode. The pain is excruciating. You freeze. You think any movement will make it worse.’
Busst needed 26 operations, his recovery complicated when he contracted MRSA i n hospital, causing further damage to the tissue and muscle. He announced his retirement from professional football on November 6, 1996.
Recalling the aftermath, Busst, who has since completed his UEFA coaching badges and managed in non-League football with Solihull Borough and Evesham United, added: ‘They wanted to do the operation with me conscious because I’d had food beforehand. But I just said, “No, just put me out and do whatever you’ve got to do.”
‘I always remember it because Cantona went and scored at Old Trafford and one of the porters came jumping up and down shouting “yes, yes, yes” and then they put me under.
‘I was in a lot of pain. I had to have what they call a fasciotomy — there was no blood supply to the open wound so they had to peel off the back of my calf, twist it 45 degrees to provide a blood supply to the bone so it would get better.’
Busst then contracted MRSA in hospital. He recalled: ‘In the first 12 days, I had 10 operations. The trouble was I contracted MRSA. The thing that stopped me playing was not the break. A lot of the operations were to clean the wound, flush it all out and hopefully it would start healing itself.’
It would take six months before Busst felt confident enough to put pressure on the leg.
He added: ‘The MRSA had affected all the muscles and the tendons so I was left with the one big tendon that pulls your big toe up, but I’d lost four of them. I’ve got a drop foot and that’s what stopped me playing. I can’t pull my toes up but I can push them down.’
Busst recalled with warmth the Manchester United players who took the time to come and visit him. ‘Steve Bruce and his son Alex, who was eight, came in,’ he added. ‘Ryan Giggs came to see me. After about four to five weeks I was able to go out to a hotel with my family and I got a call from downstairs saying there was a Manchester United fan who wanted to come up and see me.
‘This young lad in a baseball cap came up and I said, “Hi, I’m Dave Busst” and he said, “I’m David Beckham.” He wasn’t as famous as he is now.’
Despite it all, Busst still plays. ‘I started doing slight exercises, running again, playing five-a-side and then over-35s football. When I play, I go in for challenges and my dad absolutely cringes!’