Do you think being mucked up by injuries all your career is the same as missing a vital talent?

powlesY

powlesY

powlesY

Associate
Joined
12 Dec 2010
Posts
1,428
I've been having a big discussion with a mate. I said something along the lines of "Ledley King could've been great had he not been forced to play bone on bone for the majority of his career".

He believe that's irrelevant and exactly the same as saying something like "Heskey could've been great if he was better at shooting".

To me there's an obvious difference, King was already a great player, even with his injury problems. Physical and technical sides of a game are completely different. You can train yourself to be better at set-pieces, you can't train yourself to be taller.

He's having none of it, what's your opinion?
 
They're different.

Injuries can definately stop a player reaching their potential. Look at Ronaldo, still an unbelievable player, but imagine how good he could have been without the serious injuries halfway through his career.

Say you have two players that are around the same in actual ability, it's very possible one of those players reached the very ceiling of his potential, while the other player had the potential to achieve more, just not the luck.

In essence what your mate is saying is judge the player on what they actually are, not ifs and maybe's. Which is a fair point, but there's a difference between reaching your potential (but that potential not being especially high) and not reaching your potential due to injuries (while still being a well regarded player).
 
Until such a time that football becomes a totally non-physical sport (ie. brains linked directly into a virtual reality machine) physical attributes such as health are just as important as mental attributes.

If you transplanted King's brain into Heskey's body would he be as good a player technically? would Heskey be better at dribbling/shooting in Messi's body? the mind and body are different but you need both working together in harmony to be a great footballer.

Someone with brittle bone disease might be technically brilliant at boxing but they're never going to make it anywhere in the sport.
 
Last edited:
mmj_uk said:
Until such a time that football becomes a totally non-physical sport (ie. brains linked directly into a virtual reality machine) physical attributes such as health are just as important as mental attributes.

If you transplanted King's brain into Heskey's body would he be as good a player technically? would Heskey be better at dribbling/shooting in Messi's body? the mind and body are different but you need both working together in harmony to be a great footballer.

Someone with brittle bone disease might be technically brilliant at boxing but they're never going to make it anywhere in the sport.
Click to expand...

Of course. What if a player with great potential gets a career ending injury though? He never reached his potential but as mentioned, it's clearly different to a player who's just lacking certain footballing talents.

If King was born with no knees it'd be a limitation that affected his potential for greatness in the first place. Similar to if a potentially great tennis player only had 3 fingers (lolwut?). But yeah, limitation through bad luck post-genetic is completely different and it seems obvious to me.
 
powlesY said:
Of course. What if a player with great potential gets a career ending injury though? He never reached his potential but as mentioned, it's clearly different to a player who's just lacking certain footballing talents.

If King was born with no knees it'd be a limitation that affected his potential for greatness in the first place. Similar to if a potentially great tennis player only had 3 fingers (lolwut?). But yeah, limitation through bad luck post-genetic is completely different and it seems obvious to me.
Click to expand...

Everyone has potential though, it's all about living up to it.

What if King had never got the knee injury would he have become the player he is today? it could have been a major catalyst in him working twice as hard on the mental side of his game. Had he remained 100% fit he may have became complacent knowing that his career was secure and fell into obscurity. Also, would he be performing at the same level if he was playing 50+ games a season like many other players?

It's all just theoretical I suppose, perhaps there is a parallel universe out there with the answer. :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom