‘I had 10 operations in 12 days… They said they may have to cut it from the knee down’

20 AUGUST 1994 is a date of special significance for David Busst.

The game itself was far from a classic. You won’t see it replayed on one of the sports channels anytime soon.

It was the opening day of the Premier League season, and in front of 10,962 people at Highfield Road, Coventry and Wimbledon drew 1-1.

It was the day Busst scored his first-ever Premier League goal, an equaliser that salvaged a point for his side and got the season off to a reasonable start.

It was also a moment where Busst truly felt he was living the dream.

As was the case with many footballers in that era, Busst rose through the ranks the hard way. He began his career in the unforgiving world of non-league football, playing for Moor Green in his native Birmingham. By the time he got his big move to Coventry, he was 25 and working in insurance. Suddenly, he was a full-time footballer getting advice from legendary English defender and then manager of the Sky Blues, Terry Butcher.

The side had finished just two points above the relegation zone the season before under Don Howe, while Busst’s move to Coventry coincided with the inaugural season of the Premier League.

In his first two campaigns at the club, the defender’s progress had been slow. He made a respectable 10 appearances in the 1992-93 season, but appeared just three times the following year.

That Wimbledon goal, however, seemed to give Busst a new lease of life, as from that point on, he was a far more regular presence in the heart of Coventry’s defence, making a further 37 appearances in the next two seasons during the tenures of Phil Neal and later Ron Atkinson, and scoring three more goals in the process. The Sky Blues, meanwhile, continued to hover around the lower half of the table and precariously close to the relegation zone at times, while always doing enough to survive.

Despite their struggles, there were some good players in that Coventry side. Busst cites Dion Dublin and Paul Williams as the two best players in the team, while also describing the Zimbabwe international Peter Ndlovu — now somewhat of a cult figure — as “the most gifted footballer that I’ve ever played with”.

“I speak to him on Twitter now and again. He’s bulked up a little bit. The last time I spoke to him he was doing some coaching in Bulawayo. Coventry signed him from Highlanders FC when they went on a tour of Zimbabwe. It was him and his brother Adam as well, who unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago.”

Source: covonthebox/YouTube

The globalisation of the Premier League was still in its infancy back then, with squads still largely dominated by British and Irish players, making unique foreign talents such as Ndlovu often seem relatively exotic and unpredictable by comparison.

Manchester United’s accomplished French attacker Eric Cantona was another enigmatic and highly distinctive presence in the English game, owing largely to his instinctive brilliance on the field and frequently odd behaviour off it.

Busst describes Cantona, along with Alan Shearer, as the best footballer he ever played against, though the encounter with the former was fleeting in a game that ended for the then-28-year-old defender in horrific circumstances.

The corner in question led to the moment that ultimately ended Busst’s career amid traumatic scenes that all of the 50,000-plus in attendance at Old Trafford that day 21 years ago will have struggled to erase from their memories ever since.

Noel Whelan’s header from an Ally Pickering corner was parried by United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. Busst, up from the centre of the defence, charged towards the rebound at speed. An unfortunate collision, however, left the Coventry player screaming in agony. He had broken his tibia and fibula, as his right leg twisted in sickening fashion.

Schmeichel and others shielded their eyes from the gruesome sight. Blood drenched the turf inside the penalty area, while the game was delayed for 15 minutes as the player was assisted by medical staff.

United, on their way to reclaiming the league title they had surrendered the previous season to Blackburn, ultimately won the game 1-0 thanks to a 47th-minute Cantona goal, but the outcome was inevitably overshadowed by Busst’s injury. Some of the players involved reportedly required counselling after witnessing this horrific accident.

Source: Tazzie01/YouTube

Busst, meanwhile, feared the worst as he departed the field on a stretcher.

“So Denis came, he had a block tackle on the inside of my right ankle. Brian McClair was coming the other side because the ball was just bouncing up and he’s coming in with a block tackle around about my right shin on the outside. And then obviously the leg’s in the middle and when two forces in opposite directions come in, then the result is inevitable.

“He said ‘don’t be silly, you’ll be back,’ and stuff like that. But I was thinking from an age point of view. I would have been 29 going into the next season. I wasn’t like a young 20-year-old.

Yet as gruesome as the injury was, the break in itself was not what stopped Busst from playing again. Instead, an infection that resulted is what ensured any subsequent efforts to return to professional football would ultimately be doomed.

“An operation I had a couple of years afterwards was the best one because I was left with a dropped foot because of the tendons being cut. Then I had corrective surgery, fused them all together, they just pulled on my big toe, so it’s not as obvious as it would have been and allows them to run, walk and jog.

A number of other footballers have experienced similar setbacks, though few if any have suffered Busst’s level of misfortune thereafter.

Djibril Cisse, Henrik Larsson, Eduardo and most recently, of course, Ireland defender Seamus Coleman have all suffered leg breaks during their respective careers.

Seamus Coleman recently broke his leg playing for Ireland against Wales.

Source: Niall Carson

Provided there are no complications, Coleman could be back playing by around Christmas time or early in the New Year. What message would Busst give to the Everton right-back as he begins the arduous and at times deeply frustrating road to recovery?

“It might be realistic goals like that, which he can set himself. Three months, he’s out of the plaster doing light training, a month after that, he’d doing light running, just take it month-by-month, using the advice of the physios and listening to them, not rushing anything.

For Busst, however, recovering from his accident was anything but straightforward and it required considerable patience. Nevertheless, he was ultimately left feeling somewhat relieved, as there was a suggestion at one point that he was in danger of having to get the leg amputated.

“Then I went down for an operation where they were going to have to take a muscle out of my back. It’s was like a last-ditch one, put it into my calf, connect it all up and then hopefully that would work.

In total, Busst would undergo 22 operations following the injury.

He did play one more match for Coventry against Manchester United — his testimonial in front of a sold-out Highfield Road, with England internationals Paul Gascoigne and Les Ferdinand making guest appearances for the Sky Blues.

Eric Cantona, Manchester United, with David Busst, Coventry City, during the latter’s testimonial in 1997.

Source: EMPICS Sport

Busst was not the only footballer who would never play again following that 16 May 1997 match — it also proved to be Eric Cantona’s final game before announcing his retirement at the surprisingly young age of 30.

Almost 20 years on from that emotional evening, Busst seems content in life, despite a picture of his still pretty bad-looking leg doing the rounds on social media not so long ago.

He is even still able to play football casually, though at 49, his appetite for the game is gradually diminishing.

“I came to (the age of) 35 then and there was an over-35s league, which a lot of my old non-league mates were playing in. I went and watched them, and thought: ‘I could have a go at this.’ But I’m retiring this year, because I’ve been doing it 15 years now — this is my last season.

Busst did his coaching badges and had originally hoped to become a manager at the highest level. He even spent six years managing non-league teams, taking charge of first Solihull Borough and later Evesham United in the early-to-mid 00s, while also spending time coaching in Coventry’s academy.

Ultimately, however, a lack of opportunities prompted Busst to discard any hopes of managing full-time. Instead, he chose to focus more intensively on his role as Football Community manager at Coventry City.

“I’m a coach educator as well. I’m an affiliated tutor for the FA. I coach the coaching courses for the FA Level 1s and Level 2s… I dip in and out of coaching the Level 1 coaches, who are coming through at the moment — that’s very fulfilling.

“You don’t have that matchday feeling. You’re never going to replicate it. I had it for six years in non-league and it was absolutely brilliant. I still manage an over-35s team on a Sunday. It’s not quite the same level but there’s still responsibility for the team, the formation, the substitutes, which will never change no matter what level you’re at. So it’s a nice balance at the moment.”

Busst, who is now Football Community manager at Coventry, pictured prior to their game with Bury last year.

Source: EMPICS Sport

Life after football can be notoriously difficult. As The Secret Footballer noted in an interview with The42 back in 2015: “Remember the stats for former footballers — one in three will get divorced, one in three will suffer a mental illness and one in three will be declared bankrupt.”

Yet as Busst points out, for every sad case, there are many other positive stories of footballers thriving after retirement, which naturally do not attract the same level of attention.

So, as unfortunate and sad as the sudden and premature end to his professional football career was, figures such as Busst deserve to be celebrated for the resilience and positive attitudes they clearly possess.

“(How you handle retirement depends on) what sort of person you are, what sort of outlook you have on life, if you’ve got a dark soul. I can see why certain players turn to drink and things like that to cope with it. I can see where the pressure’s come from. I had good support around me and a strong family, it was just all there, and that’s important.

“The PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) are great. There are opportunities to re-train into whatever industries you want to go into. The support they give to the players after is there. A lot of them don’t want to access it, because it’s sort of admitting that you have a problem I suppose.

“And so the majority of footballers, they don’t go the other way, they go the positive way.”

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

Click Here: springbok rugby Jerseys