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Ben Arfa on De Jong, Newcastle United and almost losing a leg.

Posted on April 5th, 2011 | 48 Comments |

Ben Arfa: Could have lost his leg?
Ben Arfa: Could have lost his leg?
As the latter stages of his injury rehabilitation process continues, Newcastle United wonder winger, Hatem Ben Arfa, has been giving a series of interviews on the dreadful assault carried out upon his person by Manchester City hatchetman, Nigel DeJong, his long time out of the game because of it, to give his thanks to Newcastle United and it’s fans for the way he has been treated and more.

Firstly, on his return to Tyneside after recuperating at the Fédération Française de Football’s centre of excellence at Clairefontaine near Paris he commented:

“It is great to back in Newcastle and back with the lads.

“I joined in with the warm-up this morning and managed to do a bit of light training on my own, and it was good to see the rest of the players after such a long time.

He also had words of thanks for both the club and the fans for their support during such a difficult period, saying:

“I will be continuing to follow my rehabilitation programme now I am back in Newcastle, and would like to thank the fans for their support while I have been out injured.

He also expressed his great gratitude to the club itself for their support adding:

“Newcastle showed me so much respect and a lot of love that I want to give back to them.

“I will give everything I can for this club because they trusted me and, for a human being, that is really touching.”

“I want to do a lot for this club because they gave me great confidence. For a human being, that’s huge. It touched me.”

On his reflections on life out of the game he said:

“You take a blow, that’s for sure, and I started seeing myself as someone whose career was over, who no longer plays football.

“That brought me closer to my friends and I started to really think about things because I wasn’t in the spotlight.

“I travelled a bit and the break did me a lot of good and hopefully it stands me in good stead for the future.

Shockingly, he also referred to a dangerous period in his treatment, where he could, potentially, have lost a leg owing to infection if surgeons did not act with the greatest sppeed.

On this he revealed:

“I needed a second operation because I had an infection.

“It was a big infection which could have been very dangerous.

“I was told that I could have had my leg cut off if they didn’t operate on me very quickly.”

Let us all be thankful that this didn’t come to pass!

Moving back to shortly after the incident, he spoke on the controversial Manchester City “hatchetman”, Nigel De Jong, whose vicious “scissor tackle” led to his long period out of the game. This was a tackle for which De Jong didn’t even receive a yellow card with the referee exhorting Ben Arfa to get up afterwards despite the noise of his leg breaking being clearly audible. De Jong apologised to him by text message after the assault and on this he commented:

“I do not really understand English. But in his text, he told me he did not intend to hurt me and he was sorry. I told him it was okay, it was football.

“Anyway, the problem is that there was not even fault. I think he can get away with anything if there are no sanctions.”

“I do not want to come down on the referees, but we still have to protect players a little more so if he wants to tackle like this again he thinks twice.”

Well there’s certainly much food for thought there. Speaking in another interview, which I covered here, Newcastle United’s manager, Alan Pardew said that he would not rush him back to first team team football, suggesting strongly that he may not make an appearence at all this season unless it was in the last three games and the circumstances were right. This is probably a good thing in the long term. Here’s hoping that his recovery continues well, and that he never experiences an injury of such severity again.

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1057 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

48 Responses

  1. FFS you still going on about this? It wasn’t even a foul !
    And as for – “the referee exhorting Ben Arfa to get up afterwards despite the noise of his leg breaking being clearly audible”
    – I’m sorry but this goes beyond the normal blog bollocks, you are a fekkin liar if you claim to have heard his leg break. I was sitting in row E block 138 so it was almost right in front of me. We heard fek all. You cnuts were at the opposite end of the stadium (or more likely watching a pirate feed in the pub).

  2. Look at the little sh1t defend De Jong. Its disgraceful you idiots still manage to say that it wasn’t a foul when his national side banned him for the challenge. tablu, you are the real cnut here. Clowns like you deserve players like De Jong – those who would run their mouth and exert brute strength but could not pass for a human being even if posing for photo for Unisef. Disgraceful.

  3. tublu>

    I think I speak for every normal Geordie on the planet when I say “Shut ur gob u utter muppet!”

    Go back to your fella, sip ur Tia Maria and ask him to explain what the difference between football and common assault is.

  4. … Or better yet have a wander up to Gallowgate and I’ll show you myself u Manc tw*t.

  5. tublu!

    Blogs do usually talk some crap it’s true….however. whether the break was audible to the players around ben arfa and de jong is the point – the author isn’t saying he could hear it in the stands.
    As for your comment about the pirate feed in the pub, i’ll think you’ll find we have the highest numbers of away supporters in the premier league and the 3rd largest home attendance in the country…..not bad really, all things considered….
    Anyway, we’re all tired of the debate too. In fact, it’s not even a debtae. It’s a sour note to an interesting season.

  6. To those of you having a dig at Tublu – go on then, did you hear the leg break or not?

    Cause I sit 7 rows back from the pitch and the incident was literally in front of me. Not only did I not think it was a foul (nor apparently did Ben Arfa’s team mates, the linesman or the ref), I didn’t hear the bone snap either.

    So as Tublu says any of you lot claiming you heard it are fecking liars.

    P.S. Any of you go to the game? Anyone see the absolutely torrential rain in the build up to the game? Loads of the roads outside the ground were flooded, with one or two actually blocked, and there was a pitch inspection just before the game.
    The tackle was hard and fair – it was the excess water on the pitch that did the damage. Easy to be wise after the fact and jump on the bandwagon isn’t it?

  7. Tublu, Danny: Whatever the pros and cons, who did or didn’t hear what, there’s no doubt the lad suffered an horrendous injury. He could’ve lost his leg as if that’s not bad enough for anybody! Ben’s on the road to recovery and there’s no doubt he’s been very well looked after by the club. Despite what folk think of Ashley and Llambias, they’ve shown a caring side – no doubt interested in the club’s investment, but nevertheless that along with the fans’ support for him should lead Hatim to showing a great sense of commitment and loyalty. Glad to see him back and let’s raise the roof when he finally graces the turf at SJP. Hawaaayyy Hatim, hawayy the lads.

  8. Me and my son were at your sh1t stadium and leg break was audible.De jong needs somebody to give him some shoe.pick the smallest lightest player,the mans a fooking coward.That OK for you tublu ??

  9. DE JONG FOOKING COWARD IN WORLD CUP AND DONT NEED SCUM LIKE HIM IN OUR GAME,MANC SHITHEAD FANS DID HEAR LEG BREAK AND WERE LAUGHING,YOU SCUM

  10. Chaning tack slightly, did anyone hear the rumour that fatcash visited the man in France during his recuperation. Was it a welfare visit or maybe to stock up on some deecent champers.

  11. bottom line is look at De Jong’s record of discipline and tackles , and one can see what his intention is , he lacks finesse ans style which usually means that hed possesses no guile or restraint , I played back 4 for 15 seasons , the idea is to move your opposing player away from the target areas with mininmum fuss, Adams for Arse was brilliant at it and he was class top 4 , and rarely had to put in a bad tackle . Unfortunately De Jong is not class , and he should have been properly disciplined by FA after game , even tho they say as he was dealt with at time then issue has passed , they should be able to deal with extreme situations like this ! Tublu go fech ya cuz ….

  13. Fifthcolumnblue>

    That’s very generous and sensible of you. Thank you.

    Good luck next week.

  14. Had to listen to all this crap from manc scum on train on way home.The whole carraige was full of terds talking crap.Had to speak up on the train got some looks but dont suffer bullies or cowards.We should have won that game played really well,Id like 5 mins with with De jong

  15. It wasn’t really a bad tackle, it was just unnecessary force just like Joey barton was sent off for agains Liverpool after winning the ball

    Ohh and I watch most away games on a pirate satellite, but only because they have normally sold out before I even know they are on sale ;)

  16. Tublu,
    The reason this is still news 6 months later is because your excuse for a footballer broke his leg and he is not back from that yet you gonk !!!

  17. For what it’s worth, I was watching on TV and heard the crack when the tackle was made – I immediately whinced and said “that’s a leg break”. That doesn’t mean that the referee necessarily heard it but that’s irrelevant now. The tackle was the definition of “excessive force”, which is written in the laws of football as an offence. If a foul results in such a severe injury as this, the referee also has to send the player off. So the referee made a mistake but it was an honest one. Whether or not he heard the crack is irrelevant now. Let’s all just accept that de Jong got away with an excessive tackle, Martin Atkinson is not a very good referee and Ben Arfa unfortunately suffered a horrible injury but is thankfully now on the mend.

  18. Fifthcolumnblue says:

    “Well, at least Lesh proves there is intelligent life in Geordieland”

    A Manc pretending he knows what intelligent life is ?

    de Jong deliberately took out HBA and there is no other way of looking at it. He had the ball yet he chose to wrap his right leg around the back of HBA’s legs so he had nowhere to go and couldnt jump out of the way.

    But hey lets not get involved in discussing rights and wrongs with a Citeh fan they’re far too busy planning their “Top Four” celebrations and open top bus parades.

    £400m well spent :)

  19. fair spread of responses on here now. smattering of dickheeds, yorksmag/geordiedan you know who you are(give me 5 minutes with dejong etc what are you, 12 ?) and some reasoned arguments.

    I didn’t hear anyone in the stadium luaghing once it was clear benarfa was hurt so for anyone on here to suggest otherwise is yet another big porky. We all wish him well and hope he’s back to full fitness for next season.

    “nzedtoonman” enlighten us with DeJongs horrific history of red cards and brutal assaults – We’ll beat you 5 to 1 with Barton specials (cigar in the face anyone?.

  20. @Fifthcolumnblue

    What are we saying now? The… the ‘rain’ was responsible? Sheesh.

    If the rain comes into this at all, it’s that De Jong *should have* taken it into consideration. The fact he didn’t shows he’s a tough tackler that goes overboard.

    I don’t think there’s one sensible Newcastle fan that would say he meant it.

    Wilfully tried to break Ben Arfa’s leg? No.
    Poor judgement, yes.

    The man needs to take this into consideration.

  21. “Sure the Manchester City midfielder has been responsible for one-or-two bad tackles, yet almost all his challenges are clever and clean”

    The ones that arent are legendary, just ask Alonso, Holden and Ben Arfa. Two broken legs and a kung fu kick. Do us a favour, the bloke is a loose cannon and one day he’ll go off :)

  22. Ian says:

    “I don’t think there’s one sensible Newcastle fan that would say he meant it”

    I consider myself to be a sensible person. I also consider that de Jong and the rest of his Citeh team mates were made aware of HBA after his monumental performance at Everton in the previous away game.

    Any coach worth his salary would have ensured that his players knew about HBA’s threat before the game and made sure they looked after him.

  23. Alan shearer broke Wayne bridges leg against cxhelsea a few years ago (the tackles on GOAL!) an it was perfectly clean, I’m a Newcastle fan and I don’t believe the injury should influence the final decision only if the force of the challenge is excessive for the situation.

  25. hang on here,wayne rooney has just been banned for two games for SWEARING into a camers and it was trial by television,if the idiots at the fa can look at the camera’s for industrial language where people are only offended /disgusted and not physically hurt and the referee did nothing about it why was the thug de jong not brought before them to answer the case of breaking a fellow players leg ??? at least the dutch fa had the balls to do something and dropped him like a hot snot !!!!!!!!!!!

  26. @AndyMac

    I’m suggesting there was no intent to break his leg. I’m not suggesting he didn’t mean to look after him’. Big difference bud.

  27. Aye,
    de mong’s assault on HBA was definitely audible on tv, it was obvious immediately it was serious.

    For some to try & bring up past indiscretions of former players is a ridiculous attempt at a swerve. But what is particularly pathetic is the accusation aimed at Joey Barton for something he did when he was a man citeh player, unbelievable!
    :)

    The lad (HBA) has had hell to go through in the last few months, we (the club) have had to be without his skill all phucking season, yet we’ve still had the sack to buy him outright & show belief in the Lad.
    To see people coming on here to slag off the fact that there’s a piece about him getting back to actually training is repugnant to say the least.
    Good to see some manc well wishers though too, well done, a bit of class there.

    It’s a good piece as far as i’m concerned & it reflects how we feel about it whilst welcoming a great player back to the fold.
    But ultimately,
    This kind of challenge should never be allowed to happen again & definitely not be allowed to go without punishment. The ref is a spineless qunt & it’s his lack of action, followed by his refusal to do anything after the game, that is even more disgraceful than the neanderthal ‘tackle’ that almost ended a young players career.

    TSK!

  29. So the city visitors on here would be ok with Tevez having his leg broken by Vidic next weekend in similar circumstances and wont kick up a fuss, i dont think so!

  30. haha YORKSMAG you’d like 5 min with De Jong ya rekn? What a joke. Had enough of this bagging of De Jong. He obviously didnt mean it. It was just unlucky 99 times out of a 100 nothing would have happened. Hatem dont blame NDJ isn’t that good enough?

  31. de mong was ‘high 5’ing’ his team mates when the game was eventually stopped for HBA’s stretcher to come on.

    What HBA has said ‘in public’, i might add, just shows his magnanimity you dumb get.

    Where was de mong’s ‘public’ apology. NOWHERE!

    Slice it anyway you want, the fact remains, double break, coulda ended his career, you’d have screamed ‘blue’ murder if it was Barton on tevez & Barton would still be banned now.

    Shut ya’bloodclot!

  33. Aye aye radgies!
    Just got back oot of borstal.
    Pure liberty takers the bizzies like!
    What’s wrang wi nickin lead off school roofs like? Am saving the youngins gettin lead poisoning man!
    Anyways, am back livin wi me mother and Big Mick in Benwell.
    He’s owa the moon wi the result on Saturday like. He bought 3 nine bars of Pure Benwell black on Saturday neet.
    Totally chilled oot like.
    Owl Heed is still hyper like. He’s been listening to DJ G’s rave tapes aal weekend! Pure Cush dancer like Owl Heed!
    Anyways , got to nash, bizzies at the door!
    Toon Toon!

  34. does it really matter whether people in the stadium heard cracking of ben arfa’s leg?
    imo too much is being made on the tackle,this is the first time i’ve ever commented on it.
    i dont think de jong went in to do the lad on purpose,and i’ll agree with the city lads,the rain made the tackle worse,when he slid in.
    this is football though,and these things happen,remember taylor’s tackle on eduardo?.it’s a full contact sport ffs,the nanny state and the do gooders are turning football into something akin to ballet dancing for the middle classes.
    in a climate where wayne rooney swears into a camera,it’s considered a big deal,we all need to get a grip,because football is fast becoming something that looks like low rent soap opera.
    respect for referees bollox,if the ref gives a bad decision,tell him to f**k off,it’s a mans game,or at least it was.
    ben arfa has come through his injury,and he’s okay,we should put it to bed and stop looking for scapegoats.
    i know i’ll get stick for this,but i’m sick of the namby pampy,nitpicking and bull that surrounds football these days.

  35. Trojan,

    no stick from me,
    it’s more the injustice of the perpetrator getting away with it scott free & also that game in particular, being robbed blind by the shite ref who was more than happy to play the ‘homer’ card.

    Players get injured, fact, players swear, fact.
    But when fans see a rule for one & different rules for others, indignation follows.
    Yea?

  37. clint,i’ve seen the tacle a few times,and it looks like it’s happening in slow motion.it looks like dejong slides in,but the water on the pitch carries his momentum though and his other leg is behind him,which sandwiches ben arfa,as he’s trying to step off in the other direction.

  38. Trojan,
    aye mate, it’s scissor action that does for him, cos his left leg is planted. Ouch!

    If he’d just slid in, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we?

    The key is de mong’s form.

    He’s a well known ‘heavy tackler’. He shoulda come out & apologized straight off, it woulda gone a long way to dispelling a lot of the chagrin.
    I’m sure he feels bad about it, at least i’d hope he does.
    The ref is more culpable for me like, he had the chance after the game to look at it again & ‘man up’, he failed us & more especially HBA.
    Bad form from the fa.

    It’s stuff like this that causes the hoohar about rooney.
    They make a rod for their own backs.

  39. The refs/fa will get respect when or if they deserve it.

    So far, they’ve hardly covered themselves in glory, have they?

    :)

  40. clint,until football utilises the technology available to it,it will always be a game of injustice.
    look at sports like rugby union,rugby league,nfl etc,where the violence is on the pitch,and if there’s any infraction on the rules,they go to a video ref to sort it out.
    that’s why i’ve always felt that hooliganism exists at football,because it’s a game of injustice,where when the final whistle blows,things are not resolved,and this leads to confrontations outside the stadiums.
    as in the case with some of these sports i’ve mentioned,including ice hockey,where they let the players have a scrap,to sort it out,9 times out of ten this sorts out the situation and for the most part placates the crowd.
    no other sport in the world will cause as much controversy as the simple game of association football.
    look at the former yugoslavia,it was actually the prelude to civil war,the match between dynamo zagreb and red star.
    in the 60’s a world cup qualifier between honduras and el salvador,led to a war.
    i’m waffling on now,but that’s my opinion,until football becomes just,we’ll always have these life and death situations in the so called “beautiful game”.

  41. Trojan,
    totally brilliantly put mate & i agree 101%, especially in relation to your points regarding American sports & sports where the violence is on the pitch.
    I’ve been saying exactly the same for years, thank you.
    I knew it wasn’t just me that realized this stuff.
    Well done mate.

    Sport is still gladiatorial & that will never change, it’s come to pass because we need that shit in our lives.
    Soon as you take that out of the game in ends up on the streets.

    Pity the ‘powers that be’ haven’t got the sense or the balls to accept their divvy mistakes.

    :)

    ;)

  46. TROJAN 69 says:
    April 6, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    “that’s why i’ve always felt that hooliganism exists at football,because it’s a game of injustice,where when the final whistle blows,things are not resolved,and this leads to confrontations outside the stadiums.”

    Nah, it’s tribal identity and a huge adrenaline rush Trojan. Roughly all of the hooligans I’ve ever known knew they were going to have a damned good fight before a ball had been kicked, and there had been “injustices” one way or another in the game itself.

  47. Superalanshearer says:
    April 6, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    “found this earlier lads, anyone else reckon we can get europe next year??”

    No you didn’t, you’ve been spamming the site under different usernames, “Superalanshearer”. ;-)

  48. tublu says:
    April 5, 2011 at 9:55 pm
    fair spread of responses on here now. smattering of dickheeds
    tublu nice name mate!!! are you just on here 2 wind us geordies up pal?? dont come back on here we all hate you , you obviously havent a clue about footy u stupid cnut , your big and hard behind ya computer but i bet your a little weed just trying 2 cause agro MUPPET!!!!!