Diaby's right ankle has been a cause of aggravation ever since an horrendous tackle by Sunderland's Dan Smith in 2006. What made it worse was that it was so unnecessary. The game was almost finished with the score 3-0. The ball was in an innocuous area of the pitch. Sunderland – already relegated – had little to get fired up about. Smith launched himself at Diaby and inflicted damage serious enough for the Frenchman's career to be on the line. He was 19 at the time.
The complications have gone on and on. His left leg is longer than his right and the years of having one stronger side compensating for the weaker has left him with knock-on biomechanical problems. Hence, Diaby suffered almost 20 different muscular injuries since his ankle was originally shattered.
Last summer he had surgery on the right ankle for the fourth time. The details are grisly. Some stray bone had grown – a new bone effectively. "It was causing a lot of pain. I had to take the bone off. To be honest, at the beginning I didn't want to do the surgery, I just wanted to let it go and see how the ankle would respond but at the end I had to do it," he says. "I'm fine now."
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/sep/22/abou-diaby-arsenal-manchester-city
That was before he tore his ACL, which is completely unrelated I guess. Can't help but feel a bit of sympathy for him, although I do think that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Potential was always there, but he was never a world-beater, and could have been special. But then again we can never know, just like Denilson also showed much promise initially.
EDIT: Oops, wrong thread. Can a mod move it, please?
