Former Cambridge United striker Jabo Ibehre says he was just a few days away from losing his leg after an opponent’s teeth were lodged in his knee.
The 37-year-old, who played for 10 clubs in 20 years, retired this month.
He suffered the freak injury after a clash with an opponent in a development squad game in October last year.
“I turned up to hospital two days after the impact injury I had in the game only to find out that teeth were hovering in my knee,” he said.
“The amount of goo and pus that came out, and then for the doctor to say ‘there’s some teeth in your knee’.
“I was like ‘you’re kidding me, right?’ But then there was quite a serious infection in there. Luckily and thankfully the NHS were fantastic and I’m here today to tell the story,” he told BBC Radio Cumbria.
Ibehre, a 6ft 4in (1.93m) forward who had permanent spells at Carlisle United, Colchester United, MK Dons, Walsall and Leyton Orient, last played a first-team game for Cambridge in September 2019.
He needed surgery on his knee following the injury and was unable to recover sufficiently to continue playing, ending his career having scored 138 goals in 677 games across the lower tiers of the English Football League.
Ibehre said had he not sought medical help when he did, he could have lost his leg, or potentially seen his life threatened by the infection that was building up in it.
“I arrived in hospital on the Thursday and the doctor said had I come in on the Saturday, it could have been a totally different story,” he added.
“I was very fortunate that I came in and that my body reacted to the foreign body in there because had I been unaware, it could have been a lot more serious.”
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