Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has revealed how he nearly lost his leg in his only FA Cup final appearance.
Blocked vein nearly spelt disaster for striker
Cardiff City striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has revealed how his only FA Cup final appearance nearly resulted in him losing a leg.
The former Chelsea man played 68 minutes of The Blues' 2-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Millennium Stadium in 2002, although it was only after the game when a problem was discovered.
After being unable to train the week following their FA Cup final defeat to The Gunners, Hasselbaink was sent to a specialist where he was told he would require emergency surgery.
Hasselbaink is desperate for another Cup final appearance this time around and has decided he will claim a winners' medal after seeing off Barnsley in the semi-finals.
Bad injury
"My only FA Cup final appearance was not a happy one because I had to come off after about 70 minutes because I had a bad injury - which turned out to be a 75 per cent blocked vein," explained Hasselbaink.
"I had it before the game, but we didn't know what it was - I thought it was my calf and I could play through it. I had a scan before the final and nothing showed up, so I thought I was all right.
"As we found out later, it was quite bad and I was out for four months, but it could have been much, much worse. If the vein had been 80 or 90 per cent blocked, I could have lost the lower half of my right leg - gone. All I can remember is flying back to London after the Cup final, and I couldn't train for the whole week.
"On the following Sunday, we were supposed to play Aston Villa in the last game of the season and on the morning of that game the club doctor, Neil Fraser, called me and said, 'Jim, I want you to see a specialist because I don't trust this whole thing'.
"We went to one hospital in London where I had some tests and the doctors said only 25 per cent of the blood was coming through my blocked vein.
Specialist
"Straight from there, we went to another hospital where a specialist took one look and said I needed an operation, right there and then.
"I walked into that hospital thinking I was only going to have a few more tests, but I ended up having emergency surgery. When I think about that flight home from the Cup final, and the risk of deep vein thrombosis, I realise how serious it could have been.
"It did worry me when the doctor explained it properly, but I am a big believer in fate and I just don't think it was my fate to lose part of my leg - it was just my fate to scare me.
"Over the years I've been quite fortunate with injuries, and that was the only bad one I've had in my career. But I've already decided my fate on Sunday, of course, is that we are going to win because I don't have a lot of medals."
See Cardiff City take on Barnsley at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final this Sunday, live on
Sky Sports 1 and
Sky Sports HD 1.
