Lying on the King Power Stadium turf last May, Séamus Coleman presumed his storied career was over. The Everton captain feared a tackle by Leicester City’s Boubakary Soumaré had ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.
Within 24 hours, scans on the knee discovered a medial ligament tear which ruled him out of Ireland’s crucial trip to Athens last June and the remainder of the Euro 2024 qualification campaign.
“It was a bit of a scare the night of the Leicester game because I kind of thought that might have been it,” Coleman revealed at a press conference on Wednesday morning ahead of Saturday’s friendly against Belgium. “It looked to be a bad injury but thankfully as I’ve said in the last couple of months I got away without it being an ACL which was important at my age and at the time.”
Coleman has come back from serious leg injuries before, particularly following a broken leg following a tackle by Wales’ Neil Taylor in 2017, but the Soumaré collision was when the 35 year old felt his career on Merseyside and as Irish skipper could be over.
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“For the first time I did think that. Obviously I am not getting any younger but I do know from lads who got ACLs in the past that it is a nine to 12 months thing. My contract was up at the end of that season so I wasn’t sure.
“To be honest, I wasn’t really bothered as you could see when I was coming off on a stretcher. Right, we could be in real trouble here, this will be my parting act to the group and I tried to rile the fans up going off on a stretcher.
“I did think maybe it would [be over]. That was dampened the next day when I had scan and somehow, touch wood got away with it not being an ACL.
“Still a serious injury but one I could come back from.”
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