There was nothing untoward when the Burridge left-back fell over clutching his knee against Inmar on 31st January. The doctor said it was torn cartilage and referred him to a surgeon, who arranged for him to have an arthroscope to shave away the floating cartilage.
The operation went smoothly. He came around from the anaesthetic, got wheeled back to the ward, had a sandwich, and then the surgeon told him he wouldn't play football again. It wasn't only the cartilage that was damaged, he'd torn the anterior cruciate ligament.
(Pictured above: Luke Sanderson - keen on the idea of a knee transplant.When professional footballers like Michael Owen knacker their cruciate knee ligament they get sent to the States to see the world's number one knee specialist, Dr Richard Steadman. He reconstructs the patient's knee by forming a new ligament from a fresh serum of monkey glands and very strong glue. Or something like that.
It wouldn't have been that much bigger a shock to Luke had the surgeon told him that during the operation he'd accidentally sawn off his penis. Having to hang up his boots at the age of 27 is almost as bad as a future only being able to pleasure ladies with two fingers.
