Kasper Schmeichel has opened up on the personal agony he has had to endure regarding his unfortunate injury issues of late, and has revealed all in an interview with Henry Winter for football magazine Four Four Two…
The former Premier League winner had to cut his stay at the Five-in-a-row Scottish Champions short towards the end of the campaign, having succumbed to a traumatic shoulder injury whilst playing in the Europa League.
The night in question was against VfB Stuttgart at Celtic Park under the disco lights, with the Great Dane suffering a malady so severe, it has now brought forth his retirement from football altogether.
It has been a sombre end for a great goalkeeper
It has been a sombre end for a goalkeeper who’s career was always put under the most fastidious of lenses, as his father was a legend of the game, winning the Premier League, Champions League and even a Euros with his country. Some even consider him to be the greatest ‘keeper in history.
Those big gloves weren’t easy to fill, yet somehow Kasper managed to meet the challenge head on, carving himself out a tremendous career between the sticks, in his own right. Celtic came calling towards the end of that magnificent journey and he enjoyed a trophy-laden spell in Glasgow under his former Leicester City boss, Brendan Rodgers, and now most recently with Martin O’Neill.
“It was a specific injury, it happened in the Stuttgart game”
Speaking to Four Four Two about his injury woes that have forced him into retirement, Kasper said: “It was a specific injury, it happened in the Stuttgart game. It was actually fine and it was right at the end, I felt that I need to get this checked. It was pretty damaged,” the 39-year-old revealed to former Times Sport journalist Winter.
Schmeichel went to see a consultant not long after and the prognosis for the Danish goalkeeper wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
He continued: “The conversation with the doctors became more not about actually playing again but about quality of life. I’m one operation into potentially three more. They’ll fix it gradually. I still have probably 60% range of motion of what I did.
“I’m going to have to be very, very careful”
“I can play with the kids in the garden as long as there’s no contact, nothing goes near my shoulder. I’ve played tennis, I’ve played padel with obviously my other arm. So I’m still reasonably mobile.
“But once the bigger surgery starts, then I’m going to have to be very, very careful and make sure that it heals properly to give myself the best chance of having a comfortable life without any impediment. Being able to lift your kids, lift your dog.”
Kasper admitted it has been strange the way the whole situation has unfolded, adding: “It’s been really strange in the sense of I’ve still been under contract at Celtic and I’ve been in and around the team while going to see the experts.
“I played 39 games this season. We were going for a Double, which we ended up getting”
“I played 39 games this season. We were going for a Double, which we ended up getting. I was still very much trying to be a part of that, even though you can’t be. (Martin O’Neill) was great. He knows me. He knows I tried everything to see if I could get back from this. Sometimes the body makes the decisions that the heart can’t read.”
As for the truth behind his demise, the ex-Falkirk stopper is steadfast in his belief that he gave everything for Celtic whilst he was still here and contracted to the club.
“I gave everything for Celtic. I wanted desperately to win trophies for Celtic”
“Whether they knew the truth or not, people will inevitably make their own minds up,” he said. “I know the truth. Martin knows the truth. I gave everything for Celtic. I wanted desperately to win trophies for Celtic.
“And ultimately, we did, and I look back on my time at Celtic with nothing but great memories. It’s a club that got under my skin very, very quickly. It’s just a special club. It’s the whole intensity of it, how much it means, the responsibility you feel being a Celtic player.
“There are Celtic fans everywhere around the world”
“When you live in Glasgow, it’s all anyone talks about. There are Celtic fans everywhere around the world. You have to win every single game and not just win it, win it well. I just love that.”
Knowing he will never experience the hallowed ground of Paradise again as a player has given the goalkeeper perspective, of just how special a football club Celtic is.
“It’s everything about the place, driving up to the stadium, this monumental stadium, you see the (Jock Stein) statue, you walk in, all the pictures, all the history of the club everywhere,” Schmeichel went on.
“And then being on the pitch and the noise. It’s deafening. It’s just the passion”
“You go in the dressing room and it’s got a lovely blend of refurbs but still a lot of the old school stuff there. You walk through the tunnel, there’s all the plaques and all the names, and then being on the pitch and the noise. It’s deafening. It’s just the passion. All of it just grips you. In terms of actual intensity, I’d struggle to find anywhere louder.”
The net-minder, like so many countless others, waxed lyrically about those nights under the lights in European football at Parkhead too, saying: “One of my favourite things always was Champions League games, when the song (the CL anthem) starts, then this massive roar.
“They’re like, ‘wow, this is incredible”
“I always used to love when we lined up to look at the opposition. See their faces. They’re like, ‘wow, this is incredible’. Any opposition player you may have known from the national team or somewhere else and you’re talking after the game, in the tunnel, in the changing room areas, they’re all like, ‘wow, this is immense’.”
“Every footballer dreams he will bow out on the pitch”
This bittersweet ending to a fabulous career is something that the former Manchester City man would have loved to rectify, stating: “Every footballer dreams he will bow out on the pitch. That’s what I would have liked: to be able to say thank you, to show my appreciation for the support and the love I received through the years.
“But it was more important to finish the year with the trophy. And we did finish with two, and that was, for me, the most satisfying part through a lot of adversity. That we got over the line in the end was massive.”
I’m sure we’ll all wish Kasper the very best in his retirement from the game and whatever he does in the future, there will always be support for him from the Parkhead Faithful.
Thanks again, Kasper. YNWA…
Paul Gillespie
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