Cudicini’s accident raises questions on player safety and ‘risk management’
Carlo Cudicini the Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper has suffered ‘potentially life-changing injuries’ as the result of crashing his motorbike early this morning.
The crash occurred at 10:30am GMT on Forest Road in Walthamstow – East London. The collision involved a Ford Fiesta containing a female driver and a child, both of whom walked away from the incident and did not require hospital treatment.
The incident adds to an already tragic week in the world of football when considered alongside the untimely death of German and Hanover 96 keeper Robert Enke earlier this week.
The precise extent of the injuries sustained by Cudicni are as yet unsubstantiated, however it underlines the fragile nature of a professional sportspersons existence. To a mitigated extent, on field injuries and those sustained during training are considered part of the game and a occupational hazard. Career threatening injuries as a result of an everyday activity is something that must be much harder to swallow.
Cudicini (36) rose to fame after a number of solid performances for Chelsea during almost 10 years at the west London club, until being displaced following the arrival of Petr Čech. He previously enjoyed spells at AC Milan and Lazio. Cudicini completed a Bosman free transfer move to Spurs in January of this year and has made eight appearances under manager Harry Redknapp standing in for the injured Heurelho Gomes. His father Fabio was AC Milan’s goalkeeper in the 1960s.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “A 36-year-old male suffered injuries described by the London Ambulance Service as possibly life-changing and was taken to an east London hospital for further assessment and treatment. No arrests have been made.”
A statement on Tottenham’s website said: “Carlo Cudicini has fractured his wrists and injured his pelvis after being involved in a road accident this morning. The 36-year-old Italian goalkeeper has been admitted to hospital and undergone scans under the supervision of club medical staff.”
When I heard the news, although sympathising with Cudicini’s situation, I am forced to ask myself why he was riding a motorbike anyway. It is no coincidence the other parties involved in the crash walked away unscathed…because they were in a car. Cristiano Ronaldo famously planted his brand new Ferrari into the wall of a tunnel on his way to training with Manchester United on the 8thof January this year. He and a team mate got out of the car and then got a lift with Edwin van der Sar to Carrington and played a full part in training later that morning. The car was a mess, its inhabitants were fine.
There is lesson to be learned here, in particular if you are an athlete and your livelihood depends on the elite use of your extremities. It’s called risk management, or common sense, or the more wheels the better. Most professionals in Cudicini’s position have clauses in their contracts forbidding them to participate in potentially dangerous activities. There is good reason for this and perhaps the use of motorbikes as a method of transportation should be added to the list of don’ts. Harsh but True.
Topics: Goalkeepers and Goalkeeping, Tottenham
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What a load of old tosh – riding a motorbike is no more dangerous than crossing the road. Our sympathies lie with Carlo and we hope he makes a swift and full recovery (from Spurs fans).
November 13th, 2009 @ 09:22Slightly too harsh maybe.
November 13th, 2009 @ 14:21Footballers hurt themselves in all sorts of manners, Kirk Broadfoot of Rangers missed the tail end of a season because a poached egg exploded in his face. I forget the name but a player also injured his foot dropping a bottle of aftershave on it.
That was Santiago Canizares, and he missed a world cup by doing that, and yes you can go on with footballing injuries that were an everyday occurrence accident like Zat Knight breaking his jaw playfighting with his brother or Robbie Keane puling a hamstring stretching for a TV remote!!
However the sentiment of this article is fundamentally sound, these incidents are so notorious not because of the injuries that resulted from them but because of their avoidable nature. If this injury does result in the end of Carlo Cudicinis playing career he will no doubt reflect on a long and illustrious career, but what if he had been 18?
I don’t refute that people ride motorbikes everyday and the majority dont suffer ‘potentially life-changing injuries’ as a result, however it also cannot be refuted that in making that choice they are at an increased risk of doing so than if they had chosen a car, especially the high performance cars afforded by those on wages of Premier League footballers. There have been several high profile high speed collisions involving footballers in recent years, Ian Wright, Jermain Pennant and Cristiano Ronaldo being just a few and in each case the six figure car may have suffered ‘life-ending injuries’ but the individuals concerned didn’t even require a trip to their GP.
Small sacrifices such as not pursuing space travel, rally driving ect is part of the make-up of being a modern athlete (whether they like it or not, see Kimi Raikkonens current contract demands) adding a prohibition to not ride motorbikes until retirement hardly seems a sacrifice at all, even if it prolongs just one career.
November 14th, 2009 @ 20:11Arshavins the best in the league !!!!!!!!!!!!
cudicini is silly to be riding on that stupid scooter any way! Why are we talking about totterham anyway there rubbish!
December 2nd, 2009 @ 18:48