I almost had my leg amputated – Shaw

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Manchester United left back Luke Shaw has revealed he almost lost his leg after suffering a double fracture in the club’s Champions League match against PSV in 2015.

Shaw, 23, is flying high and back in the England squad following a strong start to the season with United but it could have been so much different after his serious leg injury three years ago.

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A tackle from PSV’s Hector Moreno left Shaw with a double fracture and needing to leave the Philips Stadium pitch on a stretcher as he received oxygen.

Preparing for England’s Uefa Nations League clash against Switzerland on 11 September, Shaw – set for his international return, having not featured since 2017 – said: ‘I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes think about stopping playing football, but I had a lot of good friends and family around me and they helped me through it.

‘I nearly lost my leg, I was actually really close to losing my leg and I never knew that until six months after when the doctor told me.

‘Of course, if I knew that I would [still] never have stopped. Even if he had told me there was a worry, I would have tried [to carry on playing football].

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‘I want to be playing football, I want to be playing in the biggest games possible, winning trophies. That’s my motivation, and like I said, I want to be known as one of the best fullbacks in the world.

‘At the time, they were thinking about flying me back [from Eindhoven] and if I’d have flown back, I would probably have lost my leg because of the blood clots and stuff in the leg,’ Shaw added.

‘I’ve got – I don’t want to talk about it too much – two scars down the side of my leg where they had to cut it open and pull them out because of how severe it was.

‘But I don’t really care about that anymore. I feel really strong and my right leg is exactly as it was before my leg break.’

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Dean Workman