Must have been nerve wrecking while he waited..... NICKLAS BENDTNER feared he might lose his sight after the injury which broke his eye socket earlier this year, the striker has revealed. And, as the 24-year-old waited for hours for his sight to return, he also wondered whether his football career itself might in jeopardy. The Dane, one of Sunderlandâs derby-day heroes on Sunday at the Sports Direct Arena, told the Echo that he loved every minute of the Tyneside clash. But he also admitted that part of him was just relieved to be playing again as his recovery from the facial injury continues. âIâm glad to be playing again and Sunday was fantastic,â he reflected, âBut Iâm glad to be playing at all after the knock â Iâm grateful that I didnât go blind and couldnât play because it was looking like that for a while. âI was worried.â Bendtner was hurt when he was caught by the flying boot of Angel Rangel in the victory over Swansea at the Stadium of Light in January. The defender raised his foot from behind as he tried to retrieve the ball and although the injury did not look overly serious at the time â Bendtner was able to walk from the pitch with a pad to his eye â the damage to the eye and bone surrounding it could have been disastrous for the on-loan Arsenal man. He said: âI couldnât see out of my eye for four hours, five hours and had to be hospitalised overnight as well. âItâs the first time it has happened to me on a football pitch â something as really serious as that. âI donât mind getting kicked because thatâs part and parcel of the game. âYou can get away with a broken nose, or broken jaw â that will heal. âBut your eyes. They are the most important thing. âAnd when I realised what had happened, my first thought was: âJeez. Iâm blind!â âAt first, I couldnât open the eye or see out of it at all. âEventually, when I could open the eye, all I could see was redness, so it was a real worry â wondering if that would go away. âThe medical staff did really well. They got an eye specialist in straight away and I needed injections in the injury to settle things down. âIt was not good. âI feared the worst â if you can only use one eye your career is finished. âHis toe hit me straight in the eye, which is what caused all the problems. âThe mask enables me to play though now and Iâm glad that I did because scoring in the derby on Sunday was a special moment in what was one of the most intense matches of my career.â
i actually thought bendtner had his best game for us on sunday, really wish he played as well more often
