“I have had so many operations on the left side that my body now tilts, and some days I could barely pass the ball,” the former Manchester United midfielder James Weir says. The 28-year-old is explaining why he has announced his retirement after a career plagued by injuries.
Weir made his Premier League debut as a last-minute substitute under Louis van Gaal on the same day as Marcus Rashford. The England striker scored a double against Arsenal that afternoon in February 2016 and his story needs no more telling, whereas Weir spent the following years on a somewhat nomadic journey, culminating in a sixth-month spell at Zlate Moravce, who sit bottom of the Slovakian top flight with five points from 24 games. Last month he called it a day.
