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<\/p>\nFormer Arsenal physiotherapist Gary Lewin has admitted the club made big money off a player they knew had a career-ending injury.<\/p>\n
Lewin, who spent 22 years at Arsenal, revealed that the club signed the player despite knowing about a degeneration in his knee. However, the Gunners managed to make a \u00a320million profit when they sold him two and a half years later.<\/p>\n
During Lewin's time at Arsenal, he witnessed numerous successes, including the invincible season in 2003\/04 and reaching the Champions League final. In August 2008, he left Arsenal to join the England national team as Head of Physiotherapy but later returned to the Gunners as the physio for the women's side.<\/p>\n
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Recalling the notable incident, Lewin shared that Arsenal signed a well-known international player for \u00a35million, even though he had suffered a cruciate injury 18 months prior. The club conducted a thorough medical examination and consulted an orthopaedic surgeon who confirmed early signs of knee degeneration. According to the surgeon's prognosis, the player would have three or four more years at his current level before his knee started to deteriorate.<\/p>\n
Despite the risk involved, Arsenal's management decided to proceed with the signing. The manager at that time, Arsene Wenger, saw it as valuable information for future reference. Surprisingly, the player played a significant role in winning trophies for Arsenal over the next two and a half years. Eventually, they sold him to another European club for \u00a325million. Eighteen months after leaving Arsenal, the player retired.<\/p>\n
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Sky Sports is bringing you 500 live football games to watch, as well access to Cricket, Golf, F1, Boxing, NFL, NBA and more across eight<\/span> dedicated channels. Sky Sports is the <\/span>only way to watch all the action this year.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a322 a month<\/p>\n He told the Fozcast: "We signed a player for about \u00a35million – a well-known international player. He had a cruciate injury 18 months before we signed him.<\/p>\n "We did a full medical on him and we saw an orthopaedic surgeon and the surgeon said 'He's got early signs of degeneration of the knee that he's had surgery on, you will get three or four years out of him at this level, then that knee will start to degenerate'.<\/p>\n "So we went back to the board, we graded that risk, spoke to the manager, and he said 'We're going to sign him, that's great information to have, I will use that in the future'.<\/p>\n "I thought nothing of it. Two and a half years later, we'd won a few trophies and he was a big part of that. We then sold him to another European club for \u00a325m. 18 months after that he retired." There was no suggestion Arsenal sold the player knowing he would be unable to play for much longer.<\/p>\n Throughout Lewin's tenure as Arsenal's physio, he was involved in several remarkable incidents. One of the most notable was when he saved former Chelsea captain John Terry's life after he swallowed his tongue during the League Cup final in 2007. Another instance involved Lewin's crucial role in saving Eduardo's boot and career after the Arsenal forward suffered a severe leg break during a game against Birmingham in 2008.<\/p>\n This article was crafted with the help of AI tools, which speed up <\/i>Dailystar.co.uk<\/i> 's editorial research. A content editor reviewed this content before it was published.<\/i>You can report any errors to readercomplaints@reachplc.com<\/i><\/p>\n