Jack Wilshere admits surgeons were worried he wouldn’t ‘walk again’ after injury at the age of 19

Jack Wilshere has explained how the first injury of his professional career wreaked havoc on the rest of his playing days with surgeons shocked that he was able to continue playing.

The Englishman retired from football last year at the premature age of 30 following a torrid injury-plagued career that saw him go from being one of Arsenal’s brightest prospects to playing out his final days as a professional at Danish side Aarhus.

Wilshere was hampered by a series of high-profile injuries throughout his career, often struggling with ankle problems and never regaining the form that he burst onto the stage with.

Now working as Arsenal men’s Under-18 head coach, Wilshere explained that an ankle fracture at the age of 19 hampered him years later. 

‘My first injury was my worst and I paid a lot for that. It was my right ankle, it was like the talus, which is basically you have your fib and then this little bone that sits on top of your fib and your ankle joint and I fractured that,’ he told Ben Foster on The Fozcast.

Jack Wilshere has opened up on the concerning injuries that plagued his professional career

Wilshere explained how a specialist surgeon was surprised at the extent of his ankle injury

‘I went to see the specialist surgeon and he was like “I’ve never seen that. We’ve seen it in one person.” It was a snowboarder, you could imagine their ankles are locked in and they can bend it like that. 

‘So they got in another guy, a specialist to do the surgery, and I didn’t know this until a few years later, so I then went back, it must have been about six years later I was 25 and went back to see the surgeon and he was like “oh you’re still playing?”.

Wilshere became Arsenal’s youngest league debutant in 2008 aged just 16 and just three years later produced a Champions League performance against Barcelona that put the rest of Europe on red alert.

However, seven years later he found himself being shown the Emirates exit door with his boyhood club finally resigned to the fact that Wilshere wouldn’t meet his potential, largely due to repetitive injuries.

Spells at West Ham, Bournemouth, and Aarhus followed before the midfielder eventually made the decision to call time on his playing career.

Wilshere made the decision to retire from playing at the premature age of 30 last year

However, by Wilshere’s recent admission, it is a surprise that he ever managed to continue into his 20s after being told by the surgeon that operated on his original ankle fracture that there was initial fears he wouldn’t be able to walk. 

Wilshere added: ‘He [the surgeon] showed me the notes from the surgery and it was like yeah might not play again, might not be able to walk. 

‘I didn’t know that, I think it was maybe a good thing. So I put two pins in it yeah. 

‘But then I paid the price, it never moved the same so then obviously it affects your knees.’