In March this year, Craig Gordon sat in a London clinic as a spine doctor named Usamah Jannoun delivered a stark warning. 'You've read the information leaflet,' Jannoun told the 43-year-old Hearts and Scotland goalkeeper. 'You could get paralysis, you could die…' The treatment for a neck injury that threatened to end his career also threatened his life.
Less than six months later, Gordon is in Charlotte, North Carolina, preparing for a World Cup that seemed an impossible dream only a few short months ago. His remarkable journey from that doctor's office to football's biggest stage is captured in a BBC Scotland documentary, 'Icons of Football', available on BBC iPlayer from Wednesday at 06:00 BST.
“Craig Gordon, two months after risking paralysis or death for neck surgery, is Scotland's World Cup goalkeeper at 43.”
Gordon's entire career has been defined by comebacks. Through a litany of serious injuries – ankle issues, broken arms, broken legs, knee surgeries, neck and shoulder problems – he has missed an estimated 1,975 days of football, roughly 200 games. In 2012, patellar tendonitis kept him out for two years. He visited experts in Sweden and Spain, had three surgeries, and even saw a psychologist because his club Sunderland feared the pain might be psychological. It was not. One surgeon advised him to retire. Gordon decided to carry on.
'There are definitely times where I've cried because of injury,' he says. 'I just probably don't show it to everybody else.'
Gordon made his Scotland debut more than 22 years ago, before three current World Cup squad members – Ben Gannon-Doak, Findlay Curtis and Tyler Fletcher – were even born. Now, at 43, he will become the second-oldest player in World Cup history if he makes an appearance. The film covers all of that, real-time footage of his neck struggles. 'There was definitely a worry it was something that was going to be longer term, not only in football, but also for the rest of my life,' Gordon says.
From the risk of death to the oldest man at a World Cup – a walking miracle.