• Top Tens: Freak sporting injuries

Top Tens: Freak sporting injuries

Chris Lewis just wouldn't cover that head up © Getty Images

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This week Italian teenager Matteo Manassero was hurt at the Open de France when a stray ball struck his left hand, so we at ESPN.co.uk thought we'd take a look at other freak sporting injuries….

1. Chris Lewis
England cricketer Lewis found the intense heat so oppressive in the West Indies in 1994 that he decided to shave his head. Fair enough, you might think - but calamity was just around the corner. He went out for a net session and forgot to cover his now-hairless dome, resulting in a bout of sunstroke that forced him out of the first match of the tour. "Chris Lewis baldly went where no other cricketer has gone before," wrote an unsympathetic Sun, "and the prat without a hat spent two days in bed with sunstroke."

2. Colin Montgomerie
Before The Open at Royal St George's in 2003, a bullish Montgomerie assertively declared that he "should win by five shots" - but it didn't turn out that way, as Monty's chances were scuppered when he took a mighty tumble on his way to breakfast before the first day. "I couldn't believe it was raining and as I looked up I fell over a step and landed nastily," said Montgomerie, who lasted just seven holes of his first round before having to withdraw.

3. David Beckham
February 16, 2003 really wasn't the luckiest day for Sir Alex Ferguson. After watching his Manchester United team fall two goals behind in the first half of their FA Cup tie with Arsenal, he entered the dressing room apoplectic with rage having witnessed a supine performance. Desperate to take his seething anger out on something, the Scot took a wild swipe at a stray boot; it could have gone anywhere, but instead it made contact with the face of the sport's most-photographed man, Beckham. The flying shoe opened up a nasty wound that bled profusely, meaning Becks had to be withdrawn from the action at the halfway point. "If I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn't happen again," Ferguson said.

4. Glenn McGrath
In what was a key moment in the 2005 Ashes series, Glenn McGrath trod on a stray cricket ball during a game of touch-rugby during training - Australia were so confident that they were practicing a different sport - before the second Test in Birmingham. The revered seamer had to be helped into a groundsman's buggy by his team-mates, having sustained a grade two tear to the lateral ligaments of his right ankle - a severe-enough injury to prevent him from participating at Edgbaston.

David Beckham took a boot to the face © Getty Images

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5. Sam Torrance
Torrance, a former Ryder Cup player and later captain, fell victim to the dreaded plant pot at the Belfry in 1993 due to his sleepwalking habit. "I woke up during the night and there was this huge urn in the room, which I thought was an intruder," he said. "So I just ran at it and smashed it to pieces, cracking my sternum in the process. Luckily nobody heard it and I came clean the next morning."

6. Rio Ferdinand
Ferdinand rose to prominence prior to the 2006 World Cup with a serious of televised practical jokes - or "merks", as he called them - on his England team-mates. Prior to this, he inflicted a tragic self-merking when a Leeds player - after making laudable use of his time by watching television with his foot on a coffee table for several hours, Ferdinand ended the TV marathon by standing up. So commenced the injury process, as the rising Rio suffered a knee tendon strain.

7. Mike Tindall
Critics of the World Cup-winning centre may argue that Tindall has spent his entire rugby career lurching from one injury to the next. He has fallen victim to his fair share of misfortune, however, most notably while training in the gym in 2005 when trying to accelerate his recovery from a foot problem. Tindall managed to trap his hand between two weights and required 30 stitches in his hand - only extending an already-substantial injury layoff.

Mike Tindall required 30 stitches © Getty Images

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8. Darius Vassell
Showing an astute medical mind clearly not diminished by his decision to pursue a footballing career, England striker Vassell - then of Aston Villa - attempted surgery on his swollen toe. He took the power drill - yes, the power drill - from his shelf and proceeded to take it to his toenails, thinking that the pressure would be relieved. Amazingly, it didn't help - he was out for several games after giving himself an infection.

9. Liam Lawrence
So you're pacing down the stairs, one foot following the other, now nearing flat land... And then you trip over a dog. Yep, it's the old classic - seen here affecting Stoke midfielder Lawrence. His manager Tony Pulis had clearly had a similar canine-avoidance problem judging by his matter-of-fact reporting of the incident: "He's tried to step over the dog and he's gone over on his ankle. It's very disappointing."

10. Kim Clijsters
Don't think the old dog-stumbling just affects footballers, though - Oh no. Clijsters also found her pooch too difficult a hurdle to overcome in 2007, with the resultant fall causing her to bruise her tailbone. "I stumbled over Diesel and fell badly. Very stupid," Clijsters said - and it's hard to argue with that, really. Not worth its own entry, but a nod to Goran Ivanisevic - he had to withdraw from a tournament in Miami in 2003 when he stepped on a sharp seashell on the beach and damaged his foot.

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