YOU CALL THAT AN INJURY? THIS IS AN INJURY...

IT doesn't take much to leave a modern-day footballer writhing on the turf.

The merest suggestion of a tackle can send a superstar sprawling and God forbid if there's a real injury involved.

A hint of a problem and the player is substituted, the doctors summoned and the tests begin as the science-mad clubs do their upmost to protect their prized assets.

What does Bert Trautmann make of it all?

As seen here the Manchester City goalkeeper was injured in the 1956 FA Cup final between City and Birmingham.

Only this was no ordinary injury - colliding with Birmingham's Peter Murphy when diving at his feet, the German was knocked out and it later emerged he had in fact broken his neck.

Trautmann said: "I flew forward and he came into me - it was like a train crash. I got his thigh in my neck and in that moment I was gone.

"The only treatment I got on the pitch was the 'magic sponge' and cold water. From then on I couldn't remember anything. All I saw was like a fog; a greyness. I saw things moving but didn't really recognise them as players, but instinctively I carried on. I can't explain it, nobody can.

"When I saw it later on the TV I broke down a couple more times and made a couple of saves, but it was like watching a stranger. That was the luckiest time of my life - lucky that I got to play in an FA Cup final and lucky that I could carry on playing after the injury."

No substitutes were allowed so Trautmann, who settled in England after being a prisoner of war, amazingly played on for the final 15 minutes of the match, even making a couple of saves to preserve City's 3-1 lead and help them lift the cup.

Three days later an x-ray revealed the shocking extent of the break - he had dislocated five vertebrae, the second of which had snapped in two. The third had wedged against the second, preventing further damage which could have cost him his life.

Trautmann made over 500 appearances for City, boasted a 60 per cent save rate when facing penalty kicks and in 2004 he was awarded an OBE.

Lev Yashin, Gordon Banks and Stanley Matthews have all lauded the skills of the man who kicked off his football career with St Helens Town.

But he will always be remembered as the man who played on with a broken neck.