Jack Wilshere has revealed that a doctor was surprised to see him still playing at 25, six years after the former Arsenal midfielder suffered a rare injury that almost ended his career.
The 31-year-old, who announced his retirement from playing professional football last year – a decision that was "difficult" to accept – suffered a string of ankle injuries in the early stages of his career.
In fact, when he was just 18-years-old, the former England international damaged his right ankle at the end of the 2010/11 campaign and went on to miss 151 games over a six-year period at Arsenal.
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He did have the 'stress fracture' repaired by two world-renowned surgeons but his ankle was never the same again.
Speaking on Ben Foster's YouTube podcast this month, Wilshere gave a fascinating insight into his the worst injury of his professional career.
"My first injury was my worst and I paid the price a lot for that," the former Arsenal midfielder said. "It was my right ankle. It was the talus, which is a little bone that sits on top of your fibula and your ankle joint. And I fractured that.
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"I went see the specialist surgeon. He was like, 'Wow I've only seen that in one person and it was a snowboarder.'
"They got in another specialist to do the surgery. And I didn't know this until a few years later when I went back to see them. It must have been about six years. I was 19 when the injury happened. Six years later, I was 25.
"So I went back to see the surgeon and he was like, 'Are you still playing?'. He showed me the notes from the surgery and they said: 'You might not play again. Might not be able to walk'."
Foster questioned why he wasn't told that after the initial surgery but later said: "It's maybe a good thing that you didn't know, to be honest."
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Wilshere would later be forced to have surgery on his knee and calf bone during an injury-plagued spell at Arsenal, which saw him miss over 100 games.
He would play 197 times for the Gunners between 2008 and 2016 before spells at Bournemouth and West Ham, where he missed a further 59 games in three years.
After e brief spell at Danish side Aarhus, Wilshere decided to hang up his boots at 30.
“It has been an unbelievable journey filled with so many incredible moments and I feel privileged to have experienced all that I did during my career," he said back in July 2022.
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“From being the little boy kicking a ball around in the garden to captaining my beloved Arsenal and playing for my country at a World Cup. I have lived my dream."
He added: “In truth, it has been difficult to accept that my career has been slipping away in recent times due to reasons outside of my control whilst feeling that I have still had so much to give.
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Fozcast The Ben Foster Podcast - AlamyTopics: Jack Wilshere, Arsenal, West Ham United, Bournemouth, Premier League