By Matthew Jones
July 22 2005

Following a training ground collision with Michael Chopra, Titus Bramble required an operation on his elbow to insert two metal plates and wire into his arm after he fractured his elbow in four places. The defender feared his career was over. TITUS BRAMBLE: "I was in agony for three days.

"I had to take so many painkillers that I didn't know where I was really. It was horrendous. I'm still in some pain now, but it's not agony any more, which is something.

"If I'd been a goalkeeper, I would never have played football again. I think that puts the extent of the injury into perspective. I will never be able to straighten my arm completely again.

"Thankfully it will not stop me playingfootball because I'm a defender, but when you hear something like that, it does hammer it home.

"There is no way I can rush back because if I bang my elbow, and the bone hasn't healed properly, it will break again.

"It's very frustrating to have two serious injuries in a row. I was playing the best football of my career last season when I picked up the first groin injury. When I got over that and came back for the Sporting Lisbon game, it was a bit early and I injured myself again.

"But, I was feeling good at the start of pre-season and really looking forward to the start of the season.

"Now I'm going to have to watch from the sidelines again. I've missed a lot of football because of injuries in the last six months, but they say things happen in threes, so hopefully I'm due some better luck.

"The metal plates will have stay in there forever. I'm dreading going on holiday again. Every time I go through the metal detector, I'm going to set alarm bells ringing."