Over the years in the game, there have always been some injury prone footballers.
Fortunately, some of them were still relatively successful despite their Injury challenges. Their talent outshines their predicament.
Out of these many injury-prone footballers, not all of them were exceptional.
However, in this post, we’ll highlight the most talented of these injury-prone footballers.
Also, we’ll highlight players whose careers were cut short or seriously affected by one or two serious injuries.
It is also important to mention that we did a poll among Soofootball experts within our connection and 3rd-party platforms.
These experts “voted” for their most talented injury-prone footballers.
In total, 44 players were voted. The chart below is a summary of the poll with specific emphasis on the top 12.
Obviously, from the chart, most football experts believe that Ronaldo is the most talented Injury-prone footballer ever.
In this article, we’ll discuss only the top 10 most talented injury prone footballers. After that, you’ll see a report of all 44 players.
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Ronaldo Delima
Today, Ronaldo is widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation. But he ripped both kneel in horrific injuries. Since then, he was never the same player.
Watch this video to understand how good Ronaldo was before his injury.
However, before his injury, Ronaldo was unstoppable. Breaking The Lines perfectly describes his preinjury stats:
“His pre-injury years were ridiculously good, at 21 years old he was already the best player in the world and had broken the world transfer record twice. He scored 44 goals in 47 games for Cruzeiro, 54 goals in 57 games for PSV, and 47 goals in 49 appearances at Barcelona all before turning 21.”
No wonder Ronaldo led our opinion poll by miles with a whopping 41.86% of the entire vote.
(PS: Miroslav Klose slightly edged out Ronaldo in our best international Striker position.)
Marco Reus
Marco Reus is another talented footballer whose career has been blighted by repeated injuries. But each time he’s fit, he’s always proving how talented he is.
Watch how good Marco Reus is when fit.
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In the 2019/20 season alone, for example, he was out for a total of 209 days through injuries.
Still, he managed to score 12 goals and delivered 7 Assists in just 26 appearances that season.
In fact, if you check out his injury history, you’d wonder how he’s been able to deliver thus far.
In our poll, Reus came second with just a 7.87% vote.
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Michael Owen
Owen had the world at his feet when he was young.
At Liverpool, he scored 158 goals before earning a big move to Real Madrid in 2004.
Before then, he’d won the Premier League Golden Boot (twice) just as a teenager.
In addition, Owen already won the Ballon D’or by the age of 21. He was that good!
Unfortunately, repeated injuries completely messed his career up. According to BBC, Owen at some point hated playing football because of injuries.
Imagine what career Owen would have had without his injuries.
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Aguero
Recently, Aguero had a problem with his heart. But before now, Aguero’s career has been blighted by several injuries over the years.
In total, Aguero missed about 115 games for Mancher City as he got injured in every single season since he joined.
Still, he managed to score 260 goals for Manchester City.
Aguero is currently the 4th highest goalscorer in Premier League history.
Although Aguero is one of the injury-prone footballers, it is safe to say he is a successful footballer.
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Ledley King
King is one fantastic defender when fit. He was a rock and a bully for Tottenham.
Sadly, injuries disrupted what would have been a very successful career.
In his chat with Football Daily, he mentioned that he had to Ignore the Doctors at some point.
Watch his interview below.
Despite all his injury woes, he managed to ammas 322 appearances for Tottenham and scored 13 goals.
Paul Gascoigne
In the early ’90s, Paul Gascoigne (Gazza) was the biggest name in English Football. He was a top-class Attacking Midfielder.
However, his horrific cruciate knee ligament injury in the 1991 FA Cup final defined his career. Ever since then, he never was the same player anymore.
Unfortunately, due to injury, he made just 266 career appearances.
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Marco Van Basten
Marco Van Basten is one of the very few footballers to win 3 Ballon D’or awards. The Dutchman was that good during his playing days.
Unfortunately, Van Basten had a terrible ankle injury that ended his playing career at just 30.
Jonathan Woodgate
Woodgate was an elite Center Back during his playing days. After impressive seasons with Leeds and Newcastle, he made a big move to Real Madrid in 2004.
Although things didn’t go well for the Englishman in Madrid, almost all football fans could see that he was really talented.
Consistent injuries further added to his woes and he had to retire.
Watch how good Woodgate was.
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Jack Wilshere
As a teenager, Wilshere bossed the midfield against world-class Barcelona with the likes of Iniesta, Xavi, and Busquests.
See how good he was.
Unfortunately, he was always injured and he never really fulfilled his dream.
Wilshere has been without a club since he left Bournemouth. What a sad story for a hugely talented Youngman.
According to our expert pollees, Wilshere is one of the most talented Injury-prone footballers ever.
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Abou Diaby
Another former Arsenal Man is in the frame. Diaby was a really exceptional Midfielder when fit.
Sadly, recurrent injuries killed his career off. But genuine football fans never forget how talented the man was.
Full List of 44 Most Talented Injury-Prone Footballers By Soofootball.com Experts Vote
So, we’ve highlighted the top ten most talented Injury-prone footballers by our experts. However, there are many more on the list.
See below the full list of 44 most talented injury-prone footballers ever as voted by soofootball experts via an opinion poll.
| Rank | Player | % Vote |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronaldo Delima | 41.86% |
| 2 | Marco Reus | 7.87% |
| 3 | Michael Owen | 6.80% |
| 4 | Aguero | 6.39% |
| 5 | Ledly King | 4.24% |
| 6 | Paul Gascoigne | 2.83% |
| 7 | Marco Van Basten | 2.49% |
| 8 | Jonathan Woodgate | 2.09% |
| 9 | Jack Willshere | 1.88% |
| 10 | Abou Diaby | 1.68% |
| 11 | Gareth Bale | 1.62% |
| 12 | Ousumane Dembele | 1.55% |
| 13 | Alexander Pato | 1.55% |
| 14 | Daniel Sturridge | 1.14% |
| 15 | Eduardo Alves da Silva | 1.14% |
| 16 | Eden Hazard | 1.08% |
| 17 | Arjen Robben | 1.01% |
| 18 | Santi Cazorla | 1.01% |
| 19 | Mario Gotze | 0.94% |
| 20 | Kaka | 0.81% |
| 21 | Robert Prosinečki | 0.81% |
| 22 | Owen Hagreaves | 0.74% |
| 23 | Harry Kewell | 0.74% |
| 24 | Yoann Gourcuff | 0.61% |
| 25 | Dean Ashton | 0.61% |
| 26 | Sebastian Deisler | 0.61% |
| 27 | Kieron Dyer | 0.61% |
| 28 | Gabriel Batistuta | 0.61% |
| 29 | Carlos Kaiser | 0.54% |
| 30 | Alan Shearer | 0.54% |
| 31 | Falcao | 0.47% |
| 32 | Van Ginkel | 0.47% |
| 33 | Alvaro Recoba | 0.40% |
| 34 | Kevin Strootman | 0.34% |
| 35 | Giuseppe Rossi | 0.34% |
| 36 | Roberto Baggio | 0.27% |
| 37 | Holger Badstuber | 0.27% |
| 38 | Fernando Redondo | 0.20% |
| 39 | Michael Essien | 0.20% |
| 40 | patrick kluivert | 0.20% |
| 41 | John Guidetti | 0.13% |
| 42 | Dedé do Vasco | 0.13% |
| 43 | Alessandro Del Piero | 0.13% |
| 44 | Douglas Costa | 0.07% |
Final Thought
Injuries are never a good thing for any footballer. Most times, it affects the consistency of the players.
Sometimes, injuries ultimately end the career of some players as we’ve seen in the case of some injury-prone footballers in this article.
All the same, some footballers managed to make a good career despite their injuries.
Further Reading:
- FIFA Ranking: How FIFA Ranks Each Country Every Month
- The Longest Serving Football Managers Ever
- The Best Midfielders In The Premier League History
- Ranking: The 10 Best Manchester City Players of All Time
- Soccer’s Highest Goal Scoring Midfielders of All Time
How Eric bailly didn’t make this list, baffles me