Vincent Pericard: I was never the same player after Portsmouth's title win against Rotherham

Yet that April 2003 occasion would signal the decline of their 20-year-old striker Vincent Pericard.

On a season-long loan from Juventus, the Frenchman had scored 10 times in 35 appearances for Harry Redknapp’s side.

However, injury forced him off in the 68th minute of that penultimate game of the campaign against Rotherham.

By his own admission, he was never the same player again.

Pericard told The News: ‘It was an amazing season, we were promoted to the Premier League as champions, but I didn’t realise how significant it was for the rest of my career.

‘I had never before had an injury, then, in the second half against Rotherham, I sprinted and a quad muscle tore. That’s where things started to turn for the worse.

‘It was meant to keep me out for three weeks, but kept tearing on my comebacks, four times in a row.

‘As there was tear after tear, the scar tissue was too big to heal properly, so eventually I required a full operation, which kept me out for another six months. That became the story of my career.

‘I lost a lot of fitness and confidence, I was never quite the same after that. Rotherham was a heart-breaking moment for me.

‘As you can imagine, we need to be perfectly conditioned and if one part of your body isn’t correct, it will impact upon the rest of your body – and when I returned for the reserves against Southampton in September 2004, I then tore my cruciate ligament.

‘It was a freak of nature. The goalkeeper kicked the ball and I jumped to flick it on, the defender jumped as well to win it and instead made contact with my head.

‘I lost consciousness in the air for a second and, when I opened my eyes, was landing with my knee twisted. Pure bad luck.

‘I ended up being injured for one-and-a-half years, too risky to be given a new Pompey contract and was released.’

The newly-promoted Premier League club signed Pericard permanently from Juventus in the summer of 2003.

However, injury would restrict him to just 14 more appearances over the next three seasons, while there were loan spells at Sheffield United and Plymouth.

Following his release at the end of the 2005-06 campaign, the striker featured for Stoke, Southampton, Millwall, Carlisle, Swindon and the Hawks, before retiring in 2011 at the age of 29.

He added: ‘My mobility was never the same, knowing I couldn’t trust my body, I wasn’t playing with such a free spirit.

‘I lacked the confidence I had a few years previously and was half the player by the time I finished at Pompey.

‘Having suffered two major injuries to my left leg, I lost speed and mobility, and the injuries kept coming.’

MORE: Pericard on how prison, depression, injury and suicidal thoughts meant an unfulfilled football career.

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