Siem de Jong admits he laughs at his terrible injury record after freak eye injury he feared would BLIND him, collapsed lung and multiple muscle problems
Dutchman could only chuckle after a fan posted a gif of Peter Griffin falling down the stairs with the caption: "Siem de Jong walking back into Newcastle’s training ground for pre-season"
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SIEM DE JONG can only laugh about an injury record which has seen him start just four Premier League games in three years at Newcastle.
The Dutchman has suffered a collapsed lung, multiple muscle problems and a freak eye injury which he feared would leave him BLIND.
But now fully fit and looking ahead to the new top-flight season, De Jong is at least able to see the funny side.
Earlier this summer, a fan posted a gif of Family Guy’s Peter Griffin falling down the stairs with the caption: “Siem de Jong walking back into Newcastle’s training ground for pre-season.”
De Jong, 28, retweeted it and added laughing emojis.
And the Toon midfielder, who spent last season on loan at PSV Eindhoven, smiled: “My friends are also always sending me those kind of pictures.
“They joke about it and I can joke about it, too.
“But if you look at the injuries, then they were quite serious at the time.”
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That might well be an understatement.
It certainly sounds it when you hear De Jong describe the training-ground accident last January, which saw him rushed to hospital with blood pouring out of his eye.
He recalled: "Emmanuel Riviere wanted to turn, tried to hold me back and his finger went straight in my eye, with full force.
"I was concerned I would lose my sight, especially on that first day.
“It was pretty scary. When I went to the hospital, I couldn’t see out of my right eye.
"It wasn’t just an eye injury, my retina had detached as well.
“My career would have been over. If you can’t see with one eye you can’t play.
“I had to get laser treatment on it, but after a few hours I got a little bit of blurred vision back.
"I’ve had a lot of tests since and it’s all good now.”
That eye incident came during his second season at Newcastle, following his £5million move from Ajax in the summer of 2014.
In his first term with the Toon, he tore his thigh early on and, just when he was about to make a first-team return in February, he suffered a collapsed lung.
It was a condition he also encountered two years earlier in Holland.
And he admits that initial injury is what has led to the countless problems he has suffered since.
But De Jong is now determined to shake off his sick-note tag.
He said: “I understand why people talk about it but it’s almost more health issues than injuries.
“If you look at the three big injuries I’ve had - two collapsed lungs and my eye - they’ve had nothing to do with football.
“But after the first collapsed lung, my career changed a lot.
“I used to play 40-50 games a year. After that I suffered a lot of small injuries.
“It cost me at least two or three years of my career, right in the middle of it. It was not good timing.
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“But now I don’t want to be in the news for negative reasons.
“I still feel like I have a lot to give.
“I’m 28, it’s cost me years of my career, but I’m at a good age and I feel better than I ever was.
“I feel I can back to same level I was at when I was 24.”
Whether he gets a chance to prove that at Newcastle remains to be seen, as boss Rafa Benitez will listen to offers for the six-cap Dutch international.
But De Jong added: “I will talk to the manager because I want to prove myself at Newcastle, I still feel I haven’t started here.
“I’m disappointed about my years here until now. I want it to be a different story.
“If I stay here and don’t get minutes then it won’t help me and it won’t help the club.
“But I still want to prove myself at Newcastle, because for me it’s been a strange run.”
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