The Welsh international's career has also been plagued by injury. And most memorably Norman Whiteside, having been the youngest player ever to appear in the World Cup Finals, was forced by injury to retire at 25. Dr Phil Bell, a GP with a special interest in sports medicine, said the fact that adolescents' bodies are relatively immature puts them at greater risk of injury. If you impose that on a relatively immature musculo-skeletal system, they are more prone to injury. He said that adolescent and adult athletes were affected by different types of injury.
Adults are more likely to suffer tears to the muscle and ligaments.
Younger athletes are particularly vulnerable during times of increased growth, Dr Bell said. Dr Bell said the long-term risk was that promising young athletes would have to drop out of sport before they had fulfilled their potential. The Football Association is currently performing an audit of all injuries suffered by professional footballers in England and Wales over the last two seasons. It will be complete at the end of the current season, when the FA will publish its findings along with recommendations for best practice to avoid injury. The study will show whether or not younger players are more prone to injury.