In May 2006, Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby's career took a downturn.

During a match at Sunderland, the Frenchman suffered a bad ankle fracture following a tackle by Dan Smith.

It left the ex-Auxerre player requiring three separate surgeries on the injury, with fears at the time that it could be career-ending.

As this injury chart shows, his career has been wrecked by a litany of fitness issues and according to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger his problems date back to that Smith challenge, rather than the perception of Diaby being injury-prone.

“Every time he comes back, he has to start from zero with another injury. He was a victim of competition," said Wenger on BeIn Sport.

"A footballer needs his ankle. He was destroyed by a bad tackle at Sunderland six or seven years ago which altered his ankle. He is not a fragile player. He was the victim of an assassin's tackle that went unpunished."

Dan Smith currently plays in the lower levels of Australian football, having left Sunderland in the summer of 2006, shortly after that tackle on Diaby.