25 Bone-Shattering Tackles You Have to See to Believe

Many, especially in America, are of the misconception that football is a relatively soft sport, played by small men who are reluctant to make hard contact with each other.

As anyone who has watched a football match knows, this is pure hokum.

Large men, who have finely tuned the strongest muscles in their bodies and carry the destructive weaponry known as studs, frequently collide violently in attempts to win possession for their team.

When these wrecking machines make enough rash challenges, mistakes are bound to happen. And when mistakes happen at high speeds and with crushing force, some terrible injuries can occur.

Some are offended by, and have trouble watching, some of the worse tackles in football.

If you've made it this far, you're probably not one of those people. So here, for your cringing pleasure, are many of the most reckless challenges that you will ever see.

Joey Barton on Dickson Etuhu

Nothing less than this would be expected of a thug like Joey Barton, especially in his worst days when he was still with Manchester City.

Thankfully, Etuhu was not terribly injured, and Barton's flying leg only caught a pack of muscle and not a more vulnerable bone.

Stephen Hunt on Fernandes

I was stunned when Hunt did not receive an automatic red card for this despicable challenge that could have destroyed any number of Fernandes' body parts.

Hunt was as lucky to not receive an automatic red card from an oblivious referee as Fernandes was to not have to go to the hospital after he took a set of studs to the knee.

Lee Bowyer on Gerado

Lee Bowyer has always been a nasty player, but he took the meaning of "playing dirty" to a new level against Malaga's Gerado.

After chopping the defender down from behind, Bowyer proceeded to place his spikes directly on his opponent's face and walk away.

Though he initially only received a yellow card (a common, albeit hard to believe, theme here), Bowyer was eventually handed a deserved six-game suspension.

Roy Keane on Alf-Inge Haaland

Roy Keane is probably one of the dirtiest players in recent history, and he showed his true colors in violent fashion with one challenge.

After Alf-Inge Haaland had injured and taunted Keane years before, the Irishman waited for his chance at revenge and took it brutally with a studs-up leap that snapped and bent Haaland's leg into excruciating positions.

Paul Gascoigne on Gary Charles

Oddly enough, Gascoigne came out far worse from this piece of utter stupidity than the man who bore the brunt of his tackle.

While Gary Charles limped away, Gazza ruptured his cruciate ligaments in his knee, changing the path of his career and scuppering some of the great promise he had with a ball at his feet.

Peter Crouch on John Obi Mikel

When the gigantic legs of 6'7" Peter Crouch come flying at you, it's a better idea to get out of the way as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately for John Obi Mikel, Crouch lunged at him from behind, and he could not avoid the dreaded scissor tackle.

Jonny Evans on Didier Drogba

There is no excusing or even explaining a full-blown judo kick to the center of the chest of an opponent, like that which Evans laid on Drogba to take the Ivorian out of the match.

You can tell when Drogba squirms around in pain after the tackle that he is faking nothing.

Why Evans was not booked and Drogba was given a yellow card, I have no idea.

Nigel de Jong on Xabi Alonso

If you want to talk about martial arts-style tackles, Nigel de Jong's boot right to the ribs of Xabi Alonso is the perfect example.

Again, the referees were oblivious to what was going on and Howard Webb did not give de Jong his deserved marching orders.

We all know that Spain had the last laugh, though.

Brian Mullan on Steve Zakuani

To get an indication of how bad this challenge was, consider that Steve Zakuani, the victim of Mullan's brutality, only recently returned to action after a 15-month layoff.

Here, one of the most talented and refreshing players in MLS was hacked down by a man who figured that the best way to contend with his opponent's speed was to literally take out his legs.

Norbert Siegmann on Ewald Lienen

I have not included the video because its content might be a bit disturbing for some.

With all studs pointed up, Norbert Siegmann ripped a long, deep gash in Ewald Lienen's thigh, exposing some of the flesh beneath.

If you wish to watch the injury, click the link below. Amazingly, Lienen manages to get up, furiously gesticulate towards the opposing manager and limp away due to all the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIWWYOqG_9s

Michael Brown on Ryan Giggs

I honestly don't know what Brown was trying to do here when he ran up to Ryan Giggs and planted both boots squarely on the Manchester United legend's knees.

Whatever was in his mind, it was certainly not anything related to getting the ball.

Andoni Goicoechea on Diego Maradona

From the looks of it, Andoni Goicoechea just couldn't figure out another way to stop the incomparable Maradona other than simply taking the Argentine's legs out from under him.

Maradona is very lucky that he did not snap his ankle like many other have in similar situations.

Axel Witsel on Marcin Wasilewski

I've included the video this time, but, again, if you're a bit squeamish, you might want to skip to the next slide.

Axel Witsel is a notoriously dirty player, and his actions were even worse when he was at Anderlecht.

Here, he uses the full force of his body and the razor sharpness of the spikes on his boots to deform Marcin Wasilewski's ankle into an awful position and cause a compound fracture.

Bruno Cirillo on Martin Mietsel

Bruno Cirillo decided to take the aforementioned martial arts kick to an entirely new, or, shall we say, higher level.

Rather than only going for the chest, Cirillo swung his leg directly at his opponent's head, which could have obviously caused worse injuries than the thankfully minor ones that Martin Mietsel suffered.

Ryan Shawcross on Aaron Ramsey

One could argue that Aaron Ramsey has never fully recovered from the effects of Ryan Shawcross' awful attempt at a tackle, as he has not played as well after a year-long layoff as when he was a rising star before the fateful double-leg fracture.

Contrary to the belief of some Arsenal fans, Shawcross did not mean to maim Ramsey, nor was he remorseless for potentially curtailing the Welshman's career.

Out of that one tackle and the resulting resentment between Arsenal and Stoke, a potent rivalry has in fact been born.

Kevin Muscat on Adrian Zahra

As long has he has been playing, Kevin Muscat has been one of, if not the dirtiest in world football.

Here, we see an incredibly botched challenge that actually closely resembles a tackle in American football, in which Muscat hurls himself far over the ball and into Adrian Zahra to flip him over and badly injure him.

I'd say there have been few more obvious red cards in the history of football. But hey, at least he apologized.

John Terry on James Milner

When you see a defender's foot vertically aligned perfectly with an attacking player's calf, you know that a heinous challenge is in progress.

Had this gone down slightly differently, Milner would have ended up with a broken leg and a stalled career instead of a transfer to Manchester City and greater fame.

What makes this even more despicable is the fact that John Terry acted like he had hurt himself after potentially ruining Milner's career, argued with the referee and only got a yellow card.

Rachid Bouaouzan on Neils Kokmeijer

Who would have thought that a little attacker could put such a wallop on a bigger player?

Apparently Neils Kokmeijer didn't anticipate an act of defending this poor, as he was violently taken out and injured by Rachid Bouaouzan, who was subsequently suspended by both the Dutch FA and his own team.

Joey Barton on Xabi Alonso

Xabi Alonso has been on the receiving end of almost as many dirty challenges in his career as Joey Barton has dished out.

Here, Barton, in typically classless fashion, decides to go at Alonso from behind, and the result is a very dirty tackle that leaves Alonso buckled on the pitch and Barton off to the dressing room.

Michael Brown on Shaun Davis

I don't know what could have possibly possessed Michael Brown to lunge in with both feet on Shaun Davis like he was breaking down a door, but Davis can consider himself very lucky that he was not very seriously injured.

At least the referee got the call right here, giving Brown a red card, but players who do this type of thing multiple times in their careers should not be allowed onto a pitch.

If you remember, he pulled a similarly dangerous stunt on Ryan Giggs.

Roy Keane on Neil Pointon

I know that referees' attitudes were different when Roy Keane started playing for Manchester United, but this reckless tackle must be given a red card on any day, in any era.

It's unsurprising that a player of Keane's ilk would do something like this knowing that he has already lost the ball and cannot legally win it back. To him, the logical next step was putting a bit of fear into the mind of the defender.

Peter Cavanagh on Chris Todd

It is both amazing and a bit disturbing to see one man turn another into a twisted heap of flesh for a few moments with one reckless sliding challenge.

Peter Cavanagh certainly did that and a bit more as he put the entire force of a running man squarely into the legs of his helpless victim; in this case, Chris Todd.

Once again, justice is denied, as Cavanagh only gets a yellow card, despite making no contact with the ball whatsoever.

Nigel de Jong on Hatem Ben Arfa

True to the title of this piece, this tackle was indeed leg-breaking. In fact, Nigel de Jong broke Hatem Ben Arfa's tibia and fibula with one terrible scissor tackle.

When you things that risky and dangerous as a footballer, you will occasionally mess up. And when a hard challenge is not done right, awful injuries happen, like that which unfortunately set Ben Arfa's career back a year.

Martin Taylor on Eduardo

Arsenal fans remember this horrific moment as the one that ultimately cost them their season and, later, one of their most valuable strikers.

Unfortunately for Eduardo, a slick goalscorer, he faced a player in Martin Taylor who did not know how to defend without using brute force to make challenges.

When the weight of the big man all came down upon one spot on Eduardo's upper ankle, he suffered a fracture of the leg and dislocation of the ankle, which precipitated a lengthy recovery period and left a shell of the fearsome No. 9 that Arsenal had once known.

Dennis Irwin and Brain McClair on David Busst

In probably the worst injury ever to occur on a football pitch, a freak collision with two Manchester United players at the same time ended David Busst's career and left him with a horribly mangled leg.

Dennis Irwin and Brian McClair gave Busst a double-compound fracture of the tibia and fibula, which means that both bones punctured the skin and were exposed.

The injuries were so extensive that, even after he was rushed off the pitch, there was a long stoppage in play to clean blood off the pitch, and Peter Schmiechel, who was only a couple feet away when the injury occurred, needed counseling.

Unfortunately for Busst, he happened to be on the receiving end of the sort of freak injury that happens perhaps once in a century in football.

Follow @charliemelman