ARGENTINA LEGEND Gabriel Batistuta has revealed he begged a doctor to amputate his legs after suffering years of mobility issues since his retirement in 2005.
The Fiorentina icon, who scored more than 350 goals for club and country over the course of a 17-year career, has now undergone surgery on his ankle as he looks to “walk like a normal person again.”
Batistuta has spoken before about the day-to-day physical agony of his post-playing life, an often ignored aspect of life as a professional footballer.
“I was crying from the pain so I asked a doctor to amputate my legs,” he told Corriere della Sera.
“I felt pain, pain and more pain. The operation was a solution I’d been chasing for at least six to seven years.
“In 40 days, once I remove the brace, we’ll know if the pain has disappeared and I can finally walk like a normal person again.”
The two-time Copa America winner, who also represented Newell’s Old Boys, River Plate, Boca Juniors, Roma, Inter and Al-Arabi throughout his prolific career, says he realised the extent of the damage done to his ankles immediately after he retired.
His remarkable tally of 54 goals in 77 international games sees him second on Argentina’s all-time top scorers list, behind only Lionel Messi. But Batistuta says he is far from the first goalscoring icon to have experienced such problems off the pitch.
“As soon as I stopped playing, I found my ankles to be in pieces,” he added. “Bone against bone, supporting a weight of 86-87 kilograms. The slightest movement became agony.
I had the same problem as [Marco] Van Basten, who said enough was enough at 28 years of age.
“I couldn’t get out of bed on some days. I’d be crying with anger and I said to myself: ‘It can’t go on like this.’
“I felt sick, so sick that I went to a doctor friend of mine and asked him to amputate my legs. I prayed to him, I insisted. I told him that this was no longer life.”
While Batistuta has never managed a professional side in the 15 years since he retired from playing, he has been linked with a move into management on more than one occasion in recent years.
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The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
Sad to hear. He was brilliant back in the day
What a fantastic player he was
That sounds horrendous
“batigol”the legend,not many men could hit it as sweet as that man.beast.
Himself, Ronaldo and Del Piero were the trilogy of the mid to late 90′s.
@Simon Doherty: worth rolling our of bed to watch them on sundays back in the day on football Italia.
He could ping a ball better than anyone. What a player!
Geez! Such a fantastic player. Casualty post retirement. Sad to hear. All the joy he gave fans as a player.
@O’Kryten: casualty post retirement… eh yeah.. that’s exactly what the story was about.. imagine your life when you retire.. more unbearable than it already is
@Charmaine Walker: Stay classy!
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: always ;-)
My favourite player of all time. Hope it works out for him.
Hope things work out well for him. A legend of a player. Batigol
Remains my favourite player of all time; while I don’t speak Spanish, his Instagram seems to be portraying a positive outcome from the surgery so hopefully he gets back to a pain-free life! Legend
He was a brilliant player. Terrible pity that most players when they retire they are forgotten about. With all the money swishing around in the game you would think a small percentage would be “ring fenced” to look after the likes of this. Unfortunately there is no will in the “Beautiful Game”!!!
When I played Junior B for a small club in Mayo :: we had it hard training every Tuesday , if it was not raining (for 5 months a year ) then you know who the hard men were :: But we were committed and will always remember Jokey having 3 cig at half time (he was cutting down) But we loved our game ::had to give it up a year ago when my Mammy told me so :: but after all that you suffer ,ingrown big toe is a killer::
Anyway best of luck to Batistuta he was some player…….
Wait for some gaa fan with a comment about how he’d feel if he’d played junior c for years and had 4 smokes at half time
Absolute baller in pro evo. Outside the box there was only one outcome