VIDEO: Horrific Leg Break Of Melbourne Defender James Strauss Post by: The Learned One and CK 8 August, 2011 - 12:17 PM

(Vision: Channel Ten)

For those who have squeamish stomachs, we strongly advise you not to look at the above vision!

Melbourne youngster James Strauss suffered one of the most horrific injuries seen on a football field in recent times on Saturday.

After going up for a marking contest against Jeff Garlett during the Demons’ clash with Carlton at the MCG, Strauss’ leg buckled under his body weight which led to both his fibula and tibia bones snapping cleanly.

Triple M Footy’s Dr Peter Larkins told The Hot Breakast on Monday that Strauss’ leg suffered such extensive trauma because his ankle was at the wrong angle when he landed.

“Most of the times we see another player make contact with (the) leg and obviously it’s equivalent to a big collision injury but this was Strauss landing and then buckling over towards his right side with his weight on his left,” Larkins told Triple M’s Hot Breakfast.

“So basically his ankle rolled, all the stress then goes from your ankle up towards your knee and we often see the knee gets injured but this time it just snapped at one-third of the way above the ankle.”

“So it had to be just those millimetres of angle that created a break in a bone that’s about two inches wide, so it’s a big thick bone that he snapped.”

Larkins highlighted how rare these kinds of injuries are.

“In the time we’ve been covering footy, we’ve seen half a dozen of these maybe. Fortunately that’s all we’ve seen,” Pete said.

“We talk about the fibula bone, the little one down the outside (of the leg) getting broken, we probably have half a dozen players a year.”

“But to get a full tibia (break), the big main bone from your knee to your ankle and (to) need surgery and a year recovery at best is one of those things you just don’t want to see in a player.”

What's the worst sporting injury you've had?

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