Argentina 2 Cote d'Ivoire 1

Ever since I heard about it I haven’t been able to get out of my head
the fact that the Cote D’Ivoire goalkeeper, Tizié, lost a testicle
after an on-pitch collision a year ago. At the time he was playing for
his club Esperance; a name that must at moments have had an ironic edge
to it. Tizié was in intensive care for two days and they didn’t think
he would live, but he was back playing for the national team a month
later. I’m aware that it’s possible to make bad-taste jokes about
goalies and goolies, but for me it’s a reminder of how much physical
courage the players have, repeatedly going into collisions any one of
which could have a determining effect on the rest of their lives.

Let’s take a moment, though, to imagine what it would have been like
if, instead of breaking his metatarsal, Rooney had (God forbid) lost a
testicle and an anxious nation was waiting to see if he would recover
in time for the World Cup. The papers, hard enough to take during the
world cup under normal cicrumstances, would have gone beyond the
darkest reveries of Karl Krauss. Imagine the editorials. Imagine the
diagrams. Imagine the cut-out-and-keep souvenirs. Imagine the Sun's daily coverage, under the heading Nadwatch.

Comments

[John Davies]

The greatest Everton player of all time, Dixie Dean, lost a testicle to a rabid defender when he was aged just 17. It didn't stop him going on to become arguably the greatest goalscorer ever to grace the English game, to father children and, in a Birkenhead bar some years later, to recognise the bloke who had inflicted this injury on him - and batter him.