Former Premier League turned non league player sues surgeon for ‘millions’ over ending his career

Former Premier League turned non league player Sylvan Ebanks-Blake sues a surgeon for ‘millions’ over allegedly ending his career.

The 37 year old claims his time in the top flight was ended by an operation he didn’t need and is now planning on taking action against the surgeon.

Ebanks-Blake said goodbye to ever playing top level football again after going under the knife following a leg break in 2013, but went on to develop arthritis, as per Express and Star.

Former Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake is suing a surgeon for millions of pounds claiming his top flight career was ended by an operation he didn’t need.https://t.co/Wsxm0tsXtl

— Express & Star (@ExpressandStar) March 15, 2023

According to Ebanks-Blake, he wasn’t warned that pain and stiffness were possible side effects after the operation.

For the premature termination of his career, he is now suing Professor James Calder, a surgeon responsible for the operation.

He is claiming for the loss and restitution of his Premier League career when he was just 27 years old, in which the average annual salary of a top-flight footballer at the time was approximately £1.6million.

Before making his professional debut in 2004, he played for Cambridge United and Manchester United’s youth football team.

Ebanks Blake was loaned to Royal Antwerp before he was transferred to Plymouth Argyle. He scored 21 goals during his two seasons at Argyle.

After that, he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers, costing £1.5m. There, he was awarded the Championship top scorer award for consecutive seasons. This helped the club get promoted to the Premier League.

Ebanks Blake represented England at the under-21 level. However, he was also eligible to play at the senior international level for Jamaica through his parents.

However, a fractured leg at the end 2012-13 season ended his time in the top flight and he subsequently spent the remainder of his career with lower-league clubs.

After suffering an injury while playing for Walsall Wood in the 2019-20 season, he eventually decided to retire from pro football.

In documents filed at High Court, Simeon Maskrey, KC, Simeon’s barrister, said that the surgeon was to blame for his demise after undergoing surgery years before.

He had his tibia fractured in April 2013 and underwent surgery by Professor James Calder, an orthopaedic surgeon.

The doctor performed an arthroscopy, a type keyhole surgery, to his ankle during the procedure to fix the bone.

He explained that the procedure was meant to assess a cartilage injury and remove any damaged tissue. He would then perform a technique that stimulates new fibrocartilage.

The lawyers representing the footballer claim that the operation resulted in a’stiffness of reduction in movement’ at his left ankle. It was perfectly normal before.

Later, he was transferred to Ipswich Town in late 2013, but, despite numerous steroid injections to his ankle, he still experienced pain.

After moving to Preston, he made the switch to non league, after suffering a second leg injury.

‘His decision to stop was the result of the continuing pain and stiffness in the left ankle joint and not because of the fracture,’ says the barrister.

Ebanks-Blake is now sueing Prof Calder to get compensation for the loss of his career. He claims that there was no reasonable justification for the ankle operation which, he says, accelerated the progression of arthritis in the joint.

The surgeon advised that he should have the procedure. However, he was not experiencing any symptoms at the time. Furthermore, the risk of causing pain or stiffness in a professional athlete far outweighs any potential benefits, according to the KC.

The claim stated that Ebanks Blake would not have consented if he had been told of the “significant risk” of stiffness and long-term pain.

‘He would have opted to wait and undergo surgery if or when the joint became painful or stiff.

‘He was left unable to play football at all without recourse to steroid injections. When he did play, the loss of movement and pain hampered his ability to play to his previous standard.

‘The combination of an inability to play regularly and/or for a reasonable length of time and his reduced standard of play gave rise to transfers from the Premier League to the lower divisions of the English Football League and eventually to non-league clubs.

‘Following the fracture of the left fibula on the 26th January 2019, the claimant reasonably gave up playing football. He did so not because of the consequences of the fracture, but because of the pain and stiffness in the left ankle joint.

‘It is probable that without any intervention on the part of the defendant the left ankle joint would eventually have become symptomatic.

‘However, the symptomology would have been delayed, would probably have been of slow onset and would not have prevented the claimant from continuing to play in the Premier Division and/or the Championship until his mid-30s.’

He added: ‘As it is, the claimant can no longer play football. He continues to suffer pain and stiffness in the left ankle. He has developed consequential psychiatric symptoms of depression.’

Maskrey said that Ebanks Blake lost his income as a professional footballer, and that he now requires physiotherapy and psychological support.

The surgeon has offered him a significant, but unquantified, compensation payout.

The court has not provided any defence to the claim.

⏪️🐺
10 years ago this month
Sylvan Ebanks Blake bagged this goal against Millwall.

Have you ever seen a better acrobatic goal by a Wolves player?#wwfc #wolves 🚲 ⚽️ 🥅pic.twitter.com/YIZuQ3mbvF

— Wolves Fancast (@wolvesfancast) March 16, 2023

HIS CAREER:

Youth career
1999–2002 – Cambridge United
2002–2004 – Manchester United

Senior career
2004–2006 – Manchester United
2006 → Royal Antwerp (loan) – 9 games (4 goals)
2006–2008 – Plymouth Argyle – 66 games (21 goals)
2008–2013 – Wolverhampton Wanderers – 177 games (61 goals)
2013–2014 – Ipswich Town – 9 games (0 goals)
2015 – Preston North End – 9 games (1 goal)
2015–2017 – Chesterfield – 46 games (12 goals)
2016–2017 → Shrewsbury Town (loan)
2017–2018 A.F.C. Telford United
2018 – Halesowen Town
2018 – Barwell
2018–2019 – Walsall Wood
Total – 390 games (114 goals)

International career
2008 – England U21

This is what fans said as the former Premier League turned non league player sues the surgeon for ‘millions’ over ending his career…

@Janderson1394: Stand by the fact we wouldn’t of gone down that season if he didn’t get injured

@DerryChris4: Didn’t affect his heading ability when he nutted some lad I know in Brum. Great header

@LichfieldWolfy: The fact he was playing for Walsall Wood at 32 tells its own story

@GrayNDesign: It was such a shame how it went for him, he was brilliant to watch. He’s part of many of my best Wolves memories.