On February 18, 2006, Alan Smith of Manchester United broke a leg and dislocated an ankle. There was a similar reaction to the Eduardo injury. Videos up on YouTube within hours of the injury taking place, loads of media coverage, people discussing whether he would ever play again etc.
Obviously the injury did not happen as the result of a terrible challenge, but the effect was the same. However, there is a reason I can distinguish the two events so easily. Quite simply, I did not care that Smith was injured.
I did not send the player an email wishing him a speedy recovery. I did not chat to my friends endlessly about the topic. I did not stop watching the match within which the accident happened because I found it so upsetting. No. I continued to enjoy the game (well, as much as you can be entertained by Manchester United v Liverpool) and barely gave the incident an after-thought.
Indeed, I did not even think about it again until yesterday, when I realised I felt genuine emotion for Eduardo that I had not felt before for an injured player. The question is this: As fans of a football team, do we form an unnatural bond with people we have never met or will ever speak to?
The nature of supporting a team in itself is quite a bizarre one, as we form an imagined community with the club we have chosen. We feel an attachment, an intrinsic link, to a group of people who we see kick a ball around a field. Week after week, we will cheer their actions, boo them when they play badly and talk about them for hours on end day after day.
The players become our possession, who we want rid of if they are not doing well for the club. And in the same way we grow attached to objects, we form an unspoken bond with the people who run around on a field representing our club.
This essentially affects our judgement. We don't care when bad things happen to players from other teams. Sure, we might say something along the lines of 'Oh, that's a shite injury to have', but we don't really care and we do not consider the implications the injury might actually have on a player's life.
They don't belong to us, therefore we don't care. Indeed, in some situations, we might even be happy that someone has picked up a broken leg. If Ronaldo were to be the object of a two-footed lunge next weekend, could you honestly say that you would care? I'm not sure I could.
I am not completely comfortable with this fact. I don't like the fact that my moods can be dictated by people I have never met, and indeed that I can feel no sympathy for a footballer who gets a terrible injury because he plays for a team I do not support.
I'm not saying that this is the case for all football fans, and of course I have given a bad example in Alan Smith as he is not the most popular player in the world (who is after you've played for Leeds United?). But I do believe that I am not the only fan in the world who feels this lack of compassion for players not playing for 'my' team.
So is this psyche an acceptable element of my personality which I developed when I chose to 'support' a football team, or a bizarre and unnatural element of my personality which I need to deal with?! I'm not so sure.
Right, I've taken long enough on this, I'd better get back to arranging for someone to 'deal with' Ronaldo this weekend .
Arsenal striker Eduardo could have been coming to terms with his career being over had it not been for Gary Lewin.
• IN FOCUS: Read how the drama unfolded as Arsenal and England physio Lewin helped save striker Eduardo's career
We can reveal the problems the Gunners physiotherapist had to overcome after Martin Taylor's lunge smashed the Brazilian's leg.
- Quickly realised the next 45 minutes would determine the striker's future.
- Was immediately faced with a player in shock and rambling in his native Portuguese.
- Had to summon Brazilian Gilberto from the bench to act as a translator.
- Realised that if the striker was not operated on immediately there was a serious risk of infection because his bone had punctured his skin.
Arsenal are confident that Eduardo - who celebrated his 25th birthday in hospital on Monday - will play again.
The club have received 12,500 e-mails of support for the Croatia striker from across the world. Messages can be sent to Eduardo via e-mail on www.arsenal.com and the club will give them to the player to aid him on his long road to recovery.
Eduardo's wife spoke of her shock as she saw her husband's horrific injury on television while she was doing the housework.
His wife, Andrea, said: "My Eduardo won't surrender. The surgery went OK and it is important to focus on his rehabilitation now. When I visited him in Birmingham he was just waking up from the operation.
"He was, as we all were, stressed and wanted to know why this happened to him, but he was quite calm. "We still have not recovered from it and the entire family is in stress. He immediately asked for his daughter Lorena. "I was doing ordinary home chores when following the match on TV. I was soon losing all my strength after crying so much."
Paul Robinson pulled off two stunning saves on his return to action last night and propelled Tottenham into the last 16 of the UEFA Cup to stake his claim for a Carling Cup Final starting place.
Just as in last week's first leg, Spurs appeared to be cruising against Slavia after Jamie O'Hara grabbed his first goal for the club on seven minutes. But once again Spurs took their foot off the gas and they came perilously close to facing extra-time following Matej Krajcik's tap-in early in the second half.
Robinson, made captain for the night, was not needed until the 35th minute when he showed concentration to block Jaroslav Cerny's swerving drive after seeing it late. But it was a spectacular parry to keep out Milan Ivana's 25-yard free-kick which saved his teammates and may just have snatched the No 1 jersey back from Radek Cerny in the nick of time.
This was exactly the performance Robinson needed to restore his shattered confidence after missing the previous 10 games for Spurs, especially under the watchful eye of England manager Fabio Capello. Having paid the price for a series of high-profile mistakes for club and country - beginning with his howler against Croatia in 2006 and culminating in him carrying Stephen Hunt's shot across the line against Reading seven weeks ago - Robinson's Tottenham career looked all but over.
But discussing his return to action, Robinson said: "I've just got to answer to myself over the way I've been playing. I want to get back on track and get back into the team."
Asked whether he expected to retain his place for Wembley, he added: "I hope so."
Ramos, as ever, was giving little away. "There are lots of things to consider," said the Spurs boss of Robinson's chances, although he was full of praise for his keeper's performance. "He completed his task perfectly," said Ramos. "He has not played for some time and he gave a magnificent performance, helping his team get through."
Last week's 2-1 win gave Ramos a selection headache, compromising his plan to hand most of his stars the night off. Keeper questions aside, the Spaniard only felt confident enough to make a further three changes - Younes Kaboul, O'Hara and Darren Bent coming in for Jermaine Jenas, Robbie Keane and Steed Malbranque - while skipper Ledley King was rested.
In seven European meetings with English sides, Slavia had managed just one victory. They had also lost all three of their previous games on English soil, failing to score.
The visitors went a goal down on seven minutes, steadying any lingering Spurs nerves. Frantisek Drizdal could not clear under pressure from Dimitar Berbatov and, as the ball fell to O'Hara, the promising midfielder unleashed a shot which deflected off Martin Latka and low into the net.
Tom Huddlestone and O'Hara were unlucky not to put the tie beyond doubt before the break, but Tottenham have a habit of making life difficult for themselves.
A bright start to the second period, when Robbie Keane went close after replacing Berbatov, was undone as Slavia struck. Daniel Pudil's low cross found Krajcik as Tottenham switched off, leaving Robinson with no chance to prevent the Slavia midfielder tapping home.
Once again, edginess crept into Tottenham's play and, sensing another goal and extra-time, the Czechs pushed forward with considerably more adventure. Drizdal tested Robinson's handling with a close-range header while Strihavka forced a decent stop at the keeper's near post. The same player then volleyed against the post.
It then fell to Robinson to produce the save of the night, tipping Ivana's strike round the post with 15 minutes remaining.
Ramos said: "We controlled the first half and perhaps that made some players relax a little too much. We ended up suffering to get the draw."
Desperate to know whether he has done enough for Wembley, Robinson is destined to spend the next 48 hours suffering, too.
Just as in last week's first leg, Spurs appeared to be cruising against Slavia after Jamie O'Hara grabbed his first goal for the club on seven minutes. But once again Spurs took their foot off the gas and they came perilously close to facing extra-time following Matej Krajcik's tap-in early in the second half.
Robinson, made captain for the night, was not needed until the 35th minute when he showed concentration to block Jaroslav Cerny's swerving drive after seeing it late. But it was a spectacular parry to keep out Milan Ivana's 25-yard free-kick which saved his teammates and may just have snatched the No 1 jersey back from Radek Cerny in the nick of time.
This was exactly the performance Robinson needed to restore his shattered confidence after missing the previous 10 games for Spurs, especially under the watchful eye of England manager Fabio Capello. Having paid the price for a series of high-profile mistakes for club and country - beginning with his howler against Croatia in 2006 and culminating in him carrying Stephen Hunt's shot across the line against Reading seven weeks ago - Robinson's Tottenham career looked all but over.
But discussing his return to action, Robinson said: "I've just got to answer to myself over the way I've been playing. I want to get back on track and get back into the team."
Asked whether he expected to retain his place for Wembley, he added: "I hope so."
Ramos, as ever, was giving little away. "There are lots of things to consider," said the Spurs boss of Robinson's chances, although he was full of praise for his keeper's performance. "He completed his task perfectly," said Ramos. "He has not played for some time and he gave a magnificent performance, helping his team get through."
Last week's 2-1 win gave Ramos a selection headache, compromising his plan to hand most of his stars the night off. Keeper questions aside, the Spaniard only felt confident enough to make a further three changes - Younes Kaboul, O'Hara and Darren Bent coming in for Jermaine Jenas, Robbie Keane and Steed Malbranque - while skipper Ledley King was rested.
In seven European meetings with English sides, Slavia had managed just one victory. They had also lost all three of their previous games on English soil, failing to score.
The visitors went a goal down on seven minutes, steadying any lingering Spurs nerves. Frantisek Drizdal could not clear under pressure from Dimitar Berbatov and, as the ball fell to O'Hara, the promising midfielder unleashed a shot which deflected off Martin Latka and low into the net.
Tom Huddlestone and O'Hara were unlucky not to put the tie beyond doubt before the break, but Tottenham have a habit of making life difficult for themselves.
A bright start to the second period, when Robbie Keane went close after replacing Berbatov, was undone as Slavia struck. Daniel Pudil's low cross found Krajcik as Tottenham switched off, leaving Robinson with no chance to prevent the Slavia midfielder tapping home.
Once again, edginess crept into Tottenham's play and, sensing another goal and extra-time, the Czechs pushed forward with considerably more adventure. Drizdal tested Robinson's handling with a close-range header while Strihavka forced a decent stop at the keeper's near post. The same player then volleyed against the post.
It then fell to Robinson to produce the save of the night, tipping Ivana's strike round the post with 15 minutes remaining.
Ramos said: "We controlled the first half and perhaps that made some players relax a little too much. We ended up suffering to get the draw."
Desperate to know whether he has done enough for Wembley, Robinson is destined to spend the next 48 hours suffering, too.
England joined France in the scrumhalf rejuvenation business yesterday, completing Richard Wigglesworth's steep climb from a distant fifth in their national rankings this time last year.
After agonising over the predicament for days, Brian Ashton decided to call time on Andy Gomarsall's reign and promote the farmer's boy from Sale for Saturday night's tete-a-tete in Paris with the relatively unknown French teenager Morgan Parra. At 24, the Lancastrian may have taken a lot longer to get there than his opposite number but his rise is no less stirring for having to wait.
When England finished last year's Six Nations by losing in Cardiff, the man they call 'Wiggy' was so far down the pecking order that he could barely be seen behind Harry Ellis, Shaun Perry, Peter Richards — all hit by long-term injury — and Gomarsall.
Wigglesworth has found it tough enough fighting his corner at Sale in competition with imported players like Bryan Redpath, Sililo Martens, Valentin Courrent and, from next season, Dwayne Peel.
'It's not come easy to me in terms of having everything handed on a plate,' said England's new No.9.
'But having to fight for what I've got has made me mentally stronger. Playing for England has always been my goal. You've got to back yourself in this game, play as well as you can and then leave it in the lap of the gods.'
Now that he has put Blackpool back on the Red Rose map for the first time since Wade Dooley retired in the early Nineties, Wigglesworth knows that he faces the biggest fight of all — holding on to his newly acquired status. Gomarsall, who clearly did not see the writing on the wall, gave Ashton immediate notice that he will not be taking it lying down and that England have not seen the last of him. 'He certainly made that clear in the conversation I had with him this morning,' said Ashton.
'He was not happy about being left out and told me in no uncertain terms that he will be fighting his way back. He said: “If this is a kick up the backside for me, I'll give you a kick up the backside from a selection standpoint”.'
Gomarsall, among the most heroic of those who did more than most to transform England's World Cup mission, suffered a double whammy — dumped not only from the team but the bench to boot as Ashton promoted two scrum-halves with 20 minutes' Test experience between them. Paul Hodgson's debut on the bench acknowledges his impressive form for London Irish.
With their changes beyond the return of both props limited to the No.9s, Ashton, an old scrum-half himself, would appear to have heaped a fair amount of the blame for their poor start on Gomarsall.
'Andy hasn't hit the form which he showed during the World Cup,' he said. 'We felt we needed more energy in that position, someone to raise the tempo of our game. Richard's a bright guy with the allround skills to bring the right players into the game at the right time.'
It capped quite a week for Wigglesworth — what with Sale beating Leeds last Friday, his favourite football team, Manchester United, knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup, matching par round his parents' nine-hole golf course on the family farm and now becoming England's starting scrum-half in his own right. 'Not a bad week,' he said. 'If they were all as good as that, I'd be a very happy man.'
Andrew Sheridan, whose formidable presence prompted the French to prop up their front row resources, declared himself 'fit and well, at the moment' after a series of tests to check his immune system following his withdrawal from the Italy match with a blood infection.
'All the early indications are that I am all right and that I am not likely to keel over at any minute — well, hopefully not,' he said in that slow, deadpan delivery of his.
'I've had three incidents, two insect bites and a cut on my heel which kept opening up. I've never had any of these problems before, just these three episodes in the past seven months.'
After watching his predecessor Bernard Laporte turn France into a grim version of England and suffer the consequences, Marc Lievremont is planning a more subtle approach.
'Trying to beat England with their own weapons — conquest, occupation, defence — would mean going to the wall,' he said. 'The Irish match is a perfect example of what not to do. We refused to take responsibility for our game, we were content to react and hold back. We really wanted to push the players so that they make the running and impose their rugby on the opposition.'
I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), T Flood (Newcastle), L Vainikolo (Gloucester); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Regan (Bristol), P Vickery (Wasps, capt), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), J Haskell (Wasps), M Lipman (Bath), N Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: L Mears (Bath), M Stevens (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), P Hodgson (London Irish), D Cipriani (Wasps), M Tait (Newcastle).
After agonising over the predicament for days, Brian Ashton decided to call time on Andy Gomarsall's reign and promote the farmer's boy from Sale for Saturday night's tete-a-tete in Paris with the relatively unknown French teenager Morgan Parra. At 24, the Lancastrian may have taken a lot longer to get there than his opposite number but his rise is no less stirring for having to wait.
When England finished last year's Six Nations by losing in Cardiff, the man they call 'Wiggy' was so far down the pecking order that he could barely be seen behind Harry Ellis, Shaun Perry, Peter Richards — all hit by long-term injury — and Gomarsall.
Wigglesworth has found it tough enough fighting his corner at Sale in competition with imported players like Bryan Redpath, Sililo Martens, Valentin Courrent and, from next season, Dwayne Peel.
'It's not come easy to me in terms of having everything handed on a plate,' said England's new No.9.
'But having to fight for what I've got has made me mentally stronger. Playing for England has always been my goal. You've got to back yourself in this game, play as well as you can and then leave it in the lap of the gods.'
Now that he has put Blackpool back on the Red Rose map for the first time since Wade Dooley retired in the early Nineties, Wigglesworth knows that he faces the biggest fight of all — holding on to his newly acquired status. Gomarsall, who clearly did not see the writing on the wall, gave Ashton immediate notice that he will not be taking it lying down and that England have not seen the last of him. 'He certainly made that clear in the conversation I had with him this morning,' said Ashton.
'He was not happy about being left out and told me in no uncertain terms that he will be fighting his way back. He said: “If this is a kick up the backside for me, I'll give you a kick up the backside from a selection standpoint”.'
Gomarsall, among the most heroic of those who did more than most to transform England's World Cup mission, suffered a double whammy — dumped not only from the team but the bench to boot as Ashton promoted two scrum-halves with 20 minutes' Test experience between them. Paul Hodgson's debut on the bench acknowledges his impressive form for London Irish.
With their changes beyond the return of both props limited to the No.9s, Ashton, an old scrum-half himself, would appear to have heaped a fair amount of the blame for their poor start on Gomarsall.
'Andy hasn't hit the form which he showed during the World Cup,' he said. 'We felt we needed more energy in that position, someone to raise the tempo of our game. Richard's a bright guy with the allround skills to bring the right players into the game at the right time.'
It capped quite a week for Wigglesworth — what with Sale beating Leeds last Friday, his favourite football team, Manchester United, knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup, matching par round his parents' nine-hole golf course on the family farm and now becoming England's starting scrum-half in his own right. 'Not a bad week,' he said. 'If they were all as good as that, I'd be a very happy man.'
Andrew Sheridan, whose formidable presence prompted the French to prop up their front row resources, declared himself 'fit and well, at the moment' after a series of tests to check his immune system following his withdrawal from the Italy match with a blood infection.
'All the early indications are that I am all right and that I am not likely to keel over at any minute — well, hopefully not,' he said in that slow, deadpan delivery of his.
'I've had three incidents, two insect bites and a cut on my heel which kept opening up. I've never had any of these problems before, just these three episodes in the past seven months.'
After watching his predecessor Bernard Laporte turn France into a grim version of England and suffer the consequences, Marc Lievremont is planning a more subtle approach.
'Trying to beat England with their own weapons — conquest, occupation, defence — would mean going to the wall,' he said. 'The Irish match is a perfect example of what not to do. We refused to take responsibility for our game, we were content to react and hold back. We really wanted to push the players so that they make the running and impose their rugby on the opposition.'
I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), T Flood (Newcastle), L Vainikolo (Gloucester); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Regan (Bristol), P Vickery (Wasps, capt), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), J Haskell (Wasps), M Lipman (Bath), N Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: L Mears (Bath), M Stevens (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), P Hodgson (London Irish), D Cipriani (Wasps), M Tait (Newcastle).
