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Derrick Rose: Another sporting career ruined by injuries?
Cameron Mee
Roar Guru
26th February, 2015
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Derrick Rose
Cameron Mee
Roar Guru
26th February, 2015
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Derrick Rose has torn the meniscus in his right knee. No, that was not a misprint, he will undergo yet another surgery that will likely end his season.

This marks the third surgery for Rose’s knees, and he has now missed almost 75 per cent of the Chicago Bulls matches since the start of the 2012-13 season.

He has had the prime of his career totally destroyed by injuries and it is possible that we will never see pre-ACL Rose again.

But Rose isn’t the first player to have the prime of his career ruined by injuries, so let’s take a look at some of sport’s greatest hard luck stories.

Bo Jackson
The man named the Greatest Athlete of All Time by ESPN was an American superstar back in the 1980s and early ’90s. A Heisman Trophy winner while playing football at Auburn and a college baseball star, Jackson had the world at his feet. As a result, he chose to pursue a multi-sport career. Not code hopping like Michael Jordan or Israel Folau, but simultaneously.

Jackson played the baseball season over the American summer and then start playing football as soon as his baseball team’s season came to an end. Throughout his four seasons playing running back at the Los Angeles Raiders he averaged 5.5 yards a carry, a remarkable figure for any running back, let alone one who was spending very little time practicing in the off-season.

Unfortunately it all came crashing down for Jackson in January of 1991 when he was tackled from behind and fell awkwardly. Jackson seriously injured his hip and wasn’t the same again. He never played another game of football and struggled to regain his trademark speed on the baseball diamond.

Andrew Johns
Some would argue that Johns was not injured when he retired in April of 2007, however I’m willing to give Johns the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the greatest halfback of all time, Johns suffered a number of injuries towards the back end of his career.

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After winning his second premiership in 2001, Johns suffered a back injury in 2002 with another premiership seemingly there for the taking. Johns then suffered a neck injury in 2003, tore his ACL in 2004 and broke his jaw in 2005. The prime of Johns’ career, and a significant chunk of the Newcastle Knights’ salary cap, was lost.

In 2002 when Johns’ shocking run of injuries began he was 27 and it looked like Newcastle would dominate the NRL for the remainder of the decade. Instead he missed a considerable amount of playing time and the Knights are still chasing their third premiership.

Unfortunately a back injury in 2007 delivered the fatal blow to Johns’ career and everything was tarnished later that year when he admitted to drug use throughout his career.

David Pocock
Pocock is just 26 years old and could still have plenty of years of rugby ahead of him, however the last two years alone land him on this list.

Let’s go all the way back to 2011 though. It’s the 2011 Rugby World Cup and Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has decided to take just one specialist openside flanker to New Zealand with him, that man is David Pocock. Pocock is one of the best players in the world and if he were to suffer an injury Australia would be left with a huge void that they would be unable to fill.

Unfortunately the worst-case scenario came to fruition, Pocock injured his back and was forced to withdraw from Australia’s most important game of the pool stages. Australia subsequently lost to Ireland and their World Cup campaign was doomed.

Pocock’s injury run intensified in 2013 when he tore the ACL in his left knee while playing for the Brumbies. As Derrick Rose would know, that was it for season 2013 for Pocock.

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Pocock is one of the hardest working athletes in Australia and he did everything he possibly could to ensure he returned bigger and better in 2014. Unfortunately season 2014 lasted just four matches. Pocock tore the ACL in his left knee again and it was another season lost.

The 2015 Super Rugby season has not started any better for the Brumbies flanker. He suffered a syndesmosis injury in his ankle during the Brumbies’ first match of the season and we still don’t have a date for his return. Hopefully Pocock will return and play a major role in the Wallabies’ 2015 World Cup campaign.

Yao Ming
Perhaps more so than any other athlete on this list, Yao Ming’s career will always be punctuated by ‘what could have been’. At 7 foot 6 inches tall, Ming can legitimately be classified as a giant and unfortunately when you’re that large, there is large potential for things to go wrong.

As Ming’s NBA career was starting to flourish, it was shot down by injury. The injuries started with his big toe in 2005 and refused to go away for the next six years. He was forced to sit out for the entire 2009-10 season due to surgery that repaired a broken bone in his left foot, and was restricted to just 24 minutes a match in the 2010-11 season.

The time restrictions in 2010-11 were unsuccessful and he suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle. At this point it was clear that Ming was unlikely to make yet another injury comeback and he eventually retired in 2011, without that coveted NBA Championship.

Follow Cameron on Twitter: @fromthesheds

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