Ryan Mason: The Injury That Ended His Career

Ryan Mason clapping the Tottenham fans for their support through his career ending injury

Former Tottenham Hotspur academy graduate and Hull City midfielder Ryan Mason enjoyed a decent spell in his career up until the 2016/17 season in the Premier League.

Mason began his career at Tottenham and had loan spells with Yeovil, Doncaster, Millwall and Swindon. Mason was starting to break into the Spurs first team set-up before joining Hull City for £12m in 2016.

The one-cap England man was impressing for the Tigers, starting week in week out but everything would change in January 2017 when Hull City travelled to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea.

Gary Cahill and Mason contested for an aerial ball from a corner and Cahill unintentionally clashed heads with Mason leaving him in a heap, worryingly motionless. Mason received treatment for nine minutes on the pitch before being taken to St Mary's Hospital in London.

Then 26-year-old Mason suffered a fractured skull and was released eight days later from the hospital struggling to recover from the injury.

Unfortunately, Mason was forced to retire from football way earlier than he would've wanted after taking expert medical advice following the head injury.

Having been a homegrown player, Spurs fans were absolutely heartbroken for him as he had so much potential to be a very good player entering his prime years of his football career. The injury was out of nowhere and there isn't much that could've been done to prevent it from occurring.

Playing football again after the injury could risk Mason's life and retiring was the safest option given the circumstances. Shortly after his release, a CT scan showed that the injuries were far worse than what had been realised before. Mason wanted to return but it just wasn't worth the life-threatening risk.

Mason now coaches at Tottenham Hotspur with the U18 team and he was present for the grand opening of Tottenham's brand new stadium as the U18s were the first to play there. The retired midfielder remains an icon at Tottenham and he now leads by example as a man lucky to be here but leading the next generation of players in the beautiful game.