This is Red Bull Salzburg goalkeep Eddie Gustafsson, who is about to enjoy a flying cleat right into the side of his shin. And since we’re posting it, you have a pretty good idea of what’s about to happen next. Video’s after the jump, but watch dude flying in there all “hi-ya!” and whatever. What else could he be trying to do other than snap the guy’s leg in half? Austrians probably love this kind of then. They practically rolled out a red carpet for all those Nazi tanks back in the day. That was Austria, right?

Head coach Huub Stevens was absolutely stunned by his goalkeeper’s injury.

“After seeing something as horrible as this, I really don’t care about winning the league title at the moment,” said Stevens on the official Red Bull website. –Goal.

Gustafsson was airlifted to the hospital and is expected to be out for “several months.” No word yet on how the offender, Lukas Kragl, will be disciplined. I suggest dragging him through the streets by his toenails. That’s probably why I’m not running Austrian soccer. Among other reasons. nichts fur schwache nerven, indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: It’s an ACL and MCL tear. That’s what happens when one’s ligaments are so gritty.

Wes Welker and his 122 receptions might be sitting on the bench for the playoffs after injuring his knee in the first quarter of the Patriots’ game with the Texans. NFL.com has reported that Welker will not return to the game.

New England had clinched the AFC East title and a playoff berth heading into today’s game, and were mathematically eliminated from first-round bye contention in the AFC playoffs.

Should Welker have been in the game? If you read what I had to say about the Colts, who were grilled by some fans and media when they pulled their starters last week against the Jets. The Colts played their starters for two-and-a-half quarters before suddenly yanking their headliners off the field. That’s not exactly “resting” their players, especially if one of them would have taken an errant cut in the first quarter, as Welker did.

The Patriots weren’t playing to kinda-sorta continue an undefeated season. The Patriots didn’t have a first-round bye in the playoffs. And the Patriots wouldn’t have been doing a disservice to their fans by keeping their marquee players in street clothes. But they didn’t. They went out and played the game The Right Way. It’s a damn shame they weren’t better rewarded for it.

The Sunday night game was pretty much over by halftime, with neither Brett Favre nor Adrian Peterson able to get much going against an Arizona Cardinals team, an organization that finally seems to have its act together. But the game’s obvious outcome made this injury to the Vikings’ E.J. Henderson all the more gratuitous, and Al Michael’s punny stylings certainly didn’t help matters. Leave the comedy to us, Al. You just keep working on that hair.

Here’s the Zepruder version: DO NOT watch the bottom right of the screen if you just ate breakfast. The prognosis: fractured femur. It’s a season- and possibly career-ending injury. But if you’re the masochist bastard that I know you are, there’s a cleaner vid after the jump. And I’ll just simply state that the NFL’s new alleged commitment to neuroscience would have done nothing to stop this. But since this wasn’t a quarterback getting hurt, they probably don’t care. –Second String Fullback, the kings of backyard football.

Read the rest of this entry »

Did you miss me? You might think otherwise after you see this video from a French soccer game, from Dirty Tackle. It’s after the jump, and I’ll warn/entice you, it’s gruesome. Let’s just say that the leg of PSG goalkeeper Gregory Coupet represents Paris, and that the unusually firm pitch represents a certain historical fascist Western European regime. I know, I know, everything has to do with Hitler, right? It’s a shame that we can’t just DEAR GOD, SIR! YOUR FOOT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO POINT THAT WAY! Read the rest of this entry »

This is Marcin Wasilewski of Anderlecht in the Belgian league. He’s Polish and, in a sick sort of way, he’s also now double-jointed. If you thought GMail went down in a heap, you’ve seen nothing yet. Video’s after the jump for the not-so-squeamish. This is pretty nasty, so if you have any children in the room, you’d better make sure they’re paying attention to this. There’s only so many chances to shape the life of a young person. Or re-shape somebody’s leg, for that matter. Read the rest of this entry »

I actually yawned when I typed that headline. Anyway, this is the modified right leg of Oupa Ngubule, he of Carara Kicks fame, after he and another player chased down a loose ball in South African Futbol League play. That player, the remorseful Felix Muamba-Musasa, was ejected for the play and apologized for the injury on his team’s website:

“Firstly, let me pass my unreserved apologies to the management of Carara Kicks as well as the family and friends of Oupa. As a sportsman, I have never broken or intended to harm my fellow colleagues in any way in my life. It was never my intention to go out and break his leg – it all happened when we both were going on a 50-50 challenge. People should understand that soccer is a contact sport. At the end of the day such accidents happen in the field of play.”

“Oupa, keep well, be strong and God Bless you my brother. I am still trying to come to terms with the incident and I will personally call you.”

This is one of the better broken legs as sports injuries go; it immediately reminded me of Alabama’s Tyrone Prothro (pictured below). You just watch it and you’re all, “Hey, that leg shouldn’t be bending that way.” But then the guy gets to lay down for a little bit, and get visits from the whole team. And maybe some ice cream. That sounds totally worth it to me.

|Total Pro Sports|