Are You Hurt or Are You Injured?

This story came to light for me after reading about it in The Sun (UK) via Deadspin and Unprofessional Foul.

If you didn't take time to click on the link, the quick and dirty of it is that Manchester United player Gabriel Obertan, a 20 year-old phenom who is getting paid 20 000 pounds per week recently injured his back and was unable to play. This is a player who is the future of the Red Devils and is now starting for the squad on a regular basis. While injured the club thought the bright lights, big city and cash would get in the way of his healing and decided to assign him some light labour to keep his head screwed on tight. Obertan was made to trim the bushes (not in a Ronaldo type way), wash the cars of senior executives and keep the grounds looking fine.

He apparently did all this without complaint, worked hard and is now fully recovered and back to playing with the starting eleven.

After speaking of bad boys like Stephen Jackson, Allen Iverson and John Rocker yesterday, do you think any of those guys would do this kind of work? For that matter, do you think any North American professional athlete would take this kind of treatment?

Quick example - the Toronto Maple Leafs in the offseason signed the goaltender of the future, Jonas Guftasson. A player that was going to backstop the Leafs to the playoffs (don't want to say Stanley Cup and get all carried away). He impressed during training camp with his size, reflexes and Swedish charm.

Early in the season though, after taking the number one goalie spot away from Vesa Toskala, Guftasson went down with an injury. There are plenty of ways to get distracted during your recovery while in Toronto, especially for a hockey player who made a big early splash. It seems that Jonas, was a good boy and has recovered nicely from his boo-boo and is back on the ice, but would it have been prudent for GM Brian Burke to make Jonas, say sweep up the arena after games to earn his cheque. Maybe the goalie could have been used to wipe all the new windows at the ACC in between games. Just think, it would be just like the training Daniel Laruso did!

In principal I like what Man U was thinking here. Make their player earn his keep and keep him involved in the day to day activities of the team. The only way North American teams can seem to involve injured players is by making them show up to charity functions. I think alot of this has something to do with a players loyalty to a franchise, but that can be a subject for another day...