Luke Shaw on injury troubles: Manchester United defender reveals he was close to losing his leg after the 2015 injury.
It was on a September evening back in 2015 that Manchester United left back Luke Shaw suffered a double leg fracture having been tackled by Hector Moreno in a UEFA Champions League fixture against PSV Eindhoven. It was a highly difficult spell for the player who had to work his way.
Following the injury, Shaw, who was 20 then, did not make an appearance in the Red jersey until Jose Mourinho’s first match in charge, the FA Community Shield 2016. Yet, he has been the subject of ill-treatment from the former Chelsea boss who has passed a lot of negative comments against him.
However, three years on from his injury, the 23 year old has probably won his manager’s faith having started each of United’s last four Premier League matches and scoring his first goal for them. His efforts were awarded with a Player of the Month from the club for the month of August. Subsequently, Gareth Southgate called the Englishman for international duty and he could start against Spain at the Wembley on Saturday in the UEFA Nation’s League clash.
But things have not been easy for the young left back, who revealed how his journey through the injury was and how he nearly lost one of his legs. “At the time, they were thinking about flying me back,” he said. “If I’d flown back, I would probably have lost my leg because of the blood clots in the leg.”
“I got two… two scars down the scars of my leg where they had to cut it open and pull them out, the clots. I feel really strong now and my right leg is as it was before my leg break. I was really close to losing my leg. I didn’t know that until six months later when the doctor told me.”
“I would never have stopped, even if he’d said there was a worry, I would have tried. But I only found out six months later. The leg’s feeling really strong now, so that’s good. My family and friends played a massive part in that. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes think about stopping playing football, but I had a lot of good people around me, friends and family, who helped me through it.”
Also read: ‘I can face criticism’, says Luke Shaw on Mourinho
“This is what I want to be doing, playing in the biggest games possible and winning trophies. That is my motivation. I want to be recognised as one of the best full-backs in the world one day, but that motivates me highly. I had a lot of complications with my leg. That was a really hard moment for me in my career. But that was in the past. I don’t care about that any more. I care about here and now, today.”
