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Fabregas, Cesc |
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Handanovic, Samir |
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Messi, Lionel |
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Baptista, Julio |
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Robben, Arjen |
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Walcott, Theo |
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Gourcuff, Yoann |
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Crespo, Hernan |
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Gallas, William |
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Higuain, Gonzalo |
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Two years ago, Dario Silva was left without his leg in a car accident, but in spite of that the ex-Uruguay player hasn’t lost his good will and his sense of humour.
Dario Silva wishes that on the 24th of September 2005, luck would have shown him her gentler side instead of turning her back on him. Yet despite the horrific car accident which caused him to lose his right leg (it was amputated below the knee) and forced him to end his football career before it’s time, his laugh is surprisingly still the one thing that he never lost.
To begin with, he was understandably not so upbeat. “When I found out what happened, I couldn't control myself. I was in such a shock, I didn't want to live anymore,” admitted 34 year old Silva, who cannot remember the accident. He adds: “When it became clear, what my family went through because of me, I quickly realized that I'm lucky to be alive!”
Playing football is now for Silva just a fond memory. If he could turn back time, he would of course do it, but he has gradually come to accept that he has no alternative but to get on with life. If he had been wearing a seat belt, he most probably would have escaped the accident without major injuries – he bumped into a street lamp with his car. But the way it happened, the doctors were surprised that he even survived. He suffered from numerous injuries, for one thing he had a skull fracture and his leg needed to be amputated because the lamp post fell on it. “The doctors did what they had to and what was the best for me. If they hadn’t operated on me, I would still have my leg, but I would surely be dead. The truth is that my career was getting towards the end anyway so this was not such a cruel blow for me as it would be if I lost it when I was 20. Of course I'm not hiding that it was horrible to see what happened,” Silva told FourFourTwo football magazine.
To everyone’s great surprise, Dario has not lost his sense of humour. Just a few minutes after he woke up from surgery after the accident, he began making jokes with his doctors and when one Spanish journalist called him to ask for an interview, he replied “They cut off my leg, not my tongue. Of course I can talk!”
