Five sportsmen injured while celebrating

We pick out five instances of celebrations gone bad

Hamburg winger Nicolai Muller scored his side’s winning goal against Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday, but will now miss seven months of action – after injuring himself celebrating.

The German scored in the eighth minute in what turned out to be the game’s winning goal, but as he ran to the Hamburg fans and performed a flurry of jumping pirouettes, he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), one of the worst injuries a footballer can sustain.

To show Nicolai isn’t the first (and probably won’t be the last) athlete to get injured in this way, we’ve found five other sportsmen who have ended up on the treatment table after excessive celebrations.

Maurides Roque Junior

After sealing the win for his side Internacional, Brazilian Maurides Roque Junior decided to celebrate with some acrobatics. Unfortunately for the brother of Galatasaray defender Maicon, he landed awkwardly after a backflip, rupturing his ACL.

Stephen Tulloch

Detroit Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch nailed Greenbay quarterback Aaron Rodgers for a first quarter sack and, in his excitement, jumped up to celebrate. Unfortunately for Tulloch, he fluffed his landing and suffered a severe ACL tear which left him out of action for months.

Paolo Diogo

In 2004, Diogo was playing for Servette against FC Schaffhausen in the Swiss Super League. After setting up former Wigan Athletic winger Jean Beausejour for a goal, the midfielder got slightly carried away. He jumped the fence to celebrate with fans, but on coming back down got his wedding ring stuck. The result? The loss of the top half of his finger. Maybe he still has the wedding ring though.

*Warning graphic content

Lomana Lua Lua

So good they named him twice, Lua Lua was a breath of fresh air during his time in the Premier League. In the game in question, the striker from Zaire, Africa, scored a crucial late equaliser against Arsenal. Depsite being warned by manager Harry Redknapp not to perform his customary backflip celebration, the occasion must have gotten to him and he did it anyway, only to injure his ankle and leave the pitch moments later. Check out some of his best moments below:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

This man needs no introduction, but during his time at AC Milan, the towering forward made a bit of a fool himself when celebrating a goal. After scoring an overhead kick, the Swede went for the traditional ‘jump and fist pump’ celebration, but put so much force into his fist pump that he strained his arm. Fortunately, he was able to continue and see out the full 90 minutes.

You could be celebrating your football bets this week at Coral. Simply check our latest football betting tips, then head over to Coral to place your bets and you could be jumping for joy – just don’t injure yourself in the process!