36yo ex Gunner: Freak Arsenal injury caused pain my whole career

The former Arsenal goalkeeper suffered the injury during a bench press exercise at London Colney in 2008.

Wojciech Szczęsny has revealed he still feels pain on a regular basis almost 20 years after the freak training ground accident at Arsenal that left him with broken bones in both forearms.

The former Arsenal goalkeeper was 17 when the injury happened in 2008 during a bench press exercise at London Colney. The bar slipped and crashed down onto his arms, fracturing both radii and, as Arsène Wenger later put it, “crushed his forearms.”

The damage was serious enough for there to be initial fears that Szczęsny’s career might be over before it had even really begun.

He needed surgery, with metal plates inserted into both forearms, and was out for around six to seven months.

The accident delayed a planned loan move and halted his push towards the first team, although he recovered and later became Arsenal’s number one.

Now 36, Szczęsny has said the injury has never fully left him.

“It’s not that I can catch the ball without feeling pain,” he said. “There has not been a single shot that I have stopped without feeling anything. I’ve just gotten used to the pain and it’s a very unpleasant feeling.

“I can do two workouts, but I already know that the third one will be an ordeal”

In fact, the pain was so bad, Woj said it was one of the reasons he was retiring, before he was tempted back into playing by Barcleona a month later after rejecting an approach from Arsenal.

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