FA Cup

LIAM GORDON cannot forget his first training session with Walsall — because it almost became his LAST!Like most new signings, the 23-year-old’s biggest concern before his first pre-season run was the odd butterfly in his stomach as he looked to make a favourable first impression on his new Saddlers team-mates.
Liam Gordon hopes to give Leicester a run for their money after an injury that could have cost him a leg or even his lifeCredit: Walsall F.C
This is the scar that Londoner Gordon must now live with
Half an hour later Gordon was in the back of an ambulance gasping for breath inside an oxygen mask, trying to alleviate the excruciating pain coursing through his body, as he was raced  to hospital.
What followed was a nightmare ordeal which could have cost him his life and led to one chilling conversation with a surgeon who warned his left leg might have to be AMPUTATED.
However, Gordon battled through THREE major operations on his leg in FIVE DAYS  to salvage a career which had literally been hanging by a thread.
Incredibly, 3½ months later the Croydon-born full-back made his Saddlers’ debut at Cheltenham.
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And today, Walsall’s warrior defender faces Leicester’s James Maddison, Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans, in one of the most uplifting FA Cup fairytales.
Gordon said: “It will be a surreal moment. After all I’ve been through, the most important part is that I’m playing football at all.
“I’m pinching myself at being able to play against a Premier League side like Leicester, who won the trophy so recently.”
Gordon  recalled the freak events of that summer’s day as he reported for his first pre-season session following his move from Bolton.
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He explained: “It was just a routine 2km run at the training ground and my blood circulation completely went in my legs. As I finished the race I collapsed.
“At first everyone thought I was joking but then they realised that there was a serious problem.
“I had just signed for the club and I’m lying there on the ground with all these thoughts flying through my head.
“I’m the new guy and this is everyone’s first view of me.  I worried the perception people would have of me was I wasn’t fit enough to handle my first training run!
“What followed obviously proved that wasn’t the case.
“The surgeon and specialists later explained the problem would have existed in my shin prior to the run.
Ex-Bolton star Gordon is now buoyant after getting his Walsall career off to the worst possible startCredit: Getty
“It’s a condition called compound compartment syndrome, often put down to shin splints, which would have built up over time.
“The club physio told me such injuries usually result from car crashes or a similar, sudden trauma and there’s usually a compound break. But that wasn’t the case with me — I was just running!”
As his anxious team-mates watched on, Gordon fought back the excruciating pain which is a symptom of the condition.
He said: “I was given oxygen immediately, then gas and air in the ambulance when I told them I needed something more for the pain.
“I probably used up the entire tank in the ambulance yet the pain was still unbearable — off the scale. On a scale of 1-10 it was 100! It was brutal.
“If I go on to have kids and my partner tells me there is no greater pain than childbirth, I’ve earned the right to say: ‘Really? Try this one!’
“They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Well I must be pretty strong to bounce back from that.”
Others without the backing of a club with a highly-trained medical team, could have DIED from the condition.
The Guyana international added: “When I was discharged from hospital initially they said I had a sprained shin and to rest for three weeks.
“If I had followed that advice and  the club hadn’t intervened, I’d have been done for.
“I constantly felt sick. I was so nauseous. I just felt faint and hot and cold.
“I developed a massive infection which caused me to have no movement in my toes at all and I still suffer from numbness, even now. Thankfully Walsall insisted on me having an MRI scan and quickly got to the heart of the matter.
“We wouldn’t be having this conversation now if they hadn’t. The club didn’t just save my career — they saved my life.
“I was readmitted to hospital and the surgeons and specialists told me I should have had surgery six hours after it happened — I had mine SIX DAYS later.
“That’s what caused the infection which almost cost me my career because I was told there is a point where the only option would have been to amputate the leg.”
Mercifully, three operations in five days saved Gordon’s career, coupled with hour upon lonely hour of hard rehabilitation.
All new signings are told not to worry, no one could possibly get off to a worse start than I did, with the 2K run which almost killed me!Liam Gordon
He said: “I have been left with a scar from my knee to my ankle which shows the full extent of the damage.
“I’ve still got numbness in my toes and I can’t feel the big toe or my second toe at all. I’ve also got constant numbness in my shin.
“I have to wear inner soles in my shoes and football boots to lessen the pressure on my shins.
“To this day, I do more weight work on my calves to make them stronger because they removed a lot of muscle for my left leg.
“As a result my right leg started to overcompensate, which led to pain in my ‘good’ leg.
So I needed to build up the strength again on my left.
“Some players can sometimes cheat with training. I just can’t afford to do that!
“The gaffer, Michael Flynn, was great and kept it quiet at the start, which helped me get through my rehab without pressure or fans constantly messaging me, or worrying about me.
“He just said it was a freak accident in training, then when I returned against Cheltenham he explained to everyone what had actually happened.
“The fans backed me all the way and provided massive motivation for me throughout.
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“I am a Christian and this ordeal has enhanced my faith in God because I couldn’t have got through this without him — or my club physios Ellie Hargreaves and Ewan Turnbull.”
He added: “All new signings are told not to worry, no one could possibly get off to a worse start than I did, with the 2K run which almost killed me!” More