Somma injury may be a knockout blow
YEP 24/4/13
After undergoing knee surgery again last week Davide Somma faces a battle to prolong his United career. Phil Hay reports.
The truth of Davide Somma’s exhausting fight with the surgeon’s knife is that no-one saw it coming. Glynn Snodin remembers the day when the striker suffered his fateful knee injury; innocuous was how it looked and, in Somma’s words, how it felt.
“That sums up his luck,” Snodin says. “We weren’t even playing a pre-season friendly. It was a practice match at the training ground, before the summer really got going. He slipped, went down and that was that.
“I’ve seen horrible injuries before and I’d seen Paddy Kisnorbo do his Achilles tendon a few months earlier. Paddy was in tears. Somma felt pain, obviously, but his reaction reassured you. He wasn’t screaming like badly-injured players do. Then we got the scan results back.”
Those results – revealed in July 2011 – showed a ruptured cruciate ligament in one of Somma’s knees. It was the first piece of bad news in a never-ending stream, the latest coming on Saturday when Leeds’ manager, Brian McDermott, revealed that Somma had undergone another operation, his third in all. This one could end his career at Elland Road.
Snodin was first-team coach under Simon Grayson in 2011 and was on the staff when an unknown Somma signed for United on the basis of a successful trial a year earlier.
The forward cut his teeth on loan at Lincoln City, scoring nine times in 14 matches, and answered questions about his suitability for Leeds and the Championship by amassing 12 goals during the 2010-11 season. Grayson’s side finished seventh in the league and Somma earned his spurs, unaware of how the summer would go.
“He’s a great example of a natural goalscorer,” Snodin says. “You might say that’s a cliché but the thing with Davide was that his game wasn’t perfect. There were things he could do better but give him the ball in front of goal and he knew exactly what he was doing.
“We had a 2-2 draw with Norwich City (in February 2011) when we’d had the better of the game but were losing 2-1. We were both going for promotion so the result mattered. Everyone knows what happened – he came off the bench and scored with his first touch. We’re not talking about a tap-in. It was a 20-yard volley. He was such an asset in that respect. And he was always going to get better.
“I read over the weekend that he’s gone for another operation and I’m gutted for him. Maybe it’s not too serious and I’m crossing my fingers but I know what he’ll be going through his head.
“He’ll be wondering if he’s ever going to play again, never mind just at Leeds. He’s a lovely, honest guy who’ll have worked so hard to get fit, and to be back with the doctor again must be soul destroying.”
Somma’s goal against Norwich was his last for almost two years. Hints at imminent comebacks repeatedly came to nothing until the closing weeks of 2012 when his lengthy rehabilitation began to pay off.
A frozen pitch denied him an appearance in an Under-21s game on December 12 but Neil Warnock, then United’s boss, gave him a break with an appearance as a substitute against Middlesbrough in the last first-team fixture before Christmas. On Boxing Day, he scored the last goal in a 4-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
Finding the net has long been Somma’s forte. Chris Sutton saw that talent in him when he took the striker to Lincoln towards the end of the 2009-10 season, a deal which ultimately saved the club from relegation. Minus Somma and ultimately without Sutton, they dropped out of the Football League 12 months later.
Speaking to the YEP in 2010, Sutton said: “He could be stronger in the air and more consistent in his hold-up play but the one thing he does time and again is finish, with either foot and from any range.
“If you get the ball to him in a dangerous position, you don’t hope he’ll score – you think he’ll score. That’s not true of every striker. It’s a nice feeling to sit on the bench knowing a player in your team is blessed with that gift. I wouldn’t say he single-handedly kept us up but he was a major reason for us staying in League Two.” Somma valued Sutton’s input as highly as that of anyone else he worked with. The instruction and guidance of a retired striker whose career played out at the top levels of English and Scottish football seemed to hone Somma’s performances and confidence. South Africa gave him his first cap and United began to acknowledge his value too. The club tied him to a three-year contract in October 2010. That deal expires on June 30 and Somma’s latest operation to remove stray cartilage cast doubt on the possibility of United extending it. He will not play in either of their remaining two games and will have little opportunity to persuade McDermott that he is worth another chance. “It’s very unfortunate for him,” McDermott said.
Somma turned 28 last month and was, to coin Sutton’s phrase, a late-comer to English football. “Get him fit and a lot of clubs would want him,” Snodin says. “Get him fit and Leeds would want him. Everyone there is well aware of what he can do. “But it’s hard to convince people to stick with you when you’ve been out for so long. He’ll have had great treatment at Thorp Arch because the medical set-up there is excellent. He’ll have had everything he needs. The one thing you can’t buy is luck and the poor lad’s obviously had none. I feel for him, I really do.”
Somma came to the fore at Leeds in the same summer as the club sold Jermaine Beckford, their major supply of goals in League One. Somma scored twice on his full debut, earning a 3-1 win over Millwall and was asked afterwards if he could replace Beckford, by then departed for Everton.
“It’s asking a lot,” Somma said, “but why not? I dreamed of this on Friday night.” Two years on, injury might see to it that the fairytale is over.
After undergoing knee surgery again last week Davide Somma faces a battle to prolong his United career. Phil Hay reports.
The truth of Davide Somma’s exhausting fight with the surgeon’s knife is that no-one saw it coming. Glynn Snodin remembers the day when the striker suffered his fateful knee injury; innocuous was how it looked and, in Somma’s words, how it felt.
“That sums up his luck,” Snodin says. “We weren’t even playing a pre-season friendly. It was a practice match at the training ground, before the summer really got going. He slipped, went down and that was that.
“I’ve seen horrible injuries before and I’d seen Paddy Kisnorbo do his Achilles tendon a few months earlier. Paddy was in tears. Somma felt pain, obviously, but his reaction reassured you. He wasn’t screaming like badly-injured players do. Then we got the scan results back.”
Those results – revealed in July 2011 – showed a ruptured cruciate ligament in one of Somma’s knees. It was the first piece of bad news in a never-ending stream, the latest coming on Saturday when Leeds’ manager, Brian McDermott, revealed that Somma had undergone another operation, his third in all. This one could end his career at Elland Road.
Snodin was first-team coach under Simon Grayson in 2011 and was on the staff when an unknown Somma signed for United on the basis of a successful trial a year earlier.
The forward cut his teeth on loan at Lincoln City, scoring nine times in 14 matches, and answered questions about his suitability for Leeds and the Championship by amassing 12 goals during the 2010-11 season. Grayson’s side finished seventh in the league and Somma earned his spurs, unaware of how the summer would go.
“He’s a great example of a natural goalscorer,” Snodin says. “You might say that’s a cliché but the thing with Davide was that his game wasn’t perfect. There were things he could do better but give him the ball in front of goal and he knew exactly what he was doing.
“We had a 2-2 draw with Norwich City (in February 2011) when we’d had the better of the game but were losing 2-1. We were both going for promotion so the result mattered. Everyone knows what happened – he came off the bench and scored with his first touch. We’re not talking about a tap-in. It was a 20-yard volley. He was such an asset in that respect. And he was always going to get better.
“I read over the weekend that he’s gone for another operation and I’m gutted for him. Maybe it’s not too serious and I’m crossing my fingers but I know what he’ll be going through his head.
“He’ll be wondering if he’s ever going to play again, never mind just at Leeds. He’s a lovely, honest guy who’ll have worked so hard to get fit, and to be back with the doctor again must be soul destroying.”
Somma’s goal against Norwich was his last for almost two years. Hints at imminent comebacks repeatedly came to nothing until the closing weeks of 2012 when his lengthy rehabilitation began to pay off.
A frozen pitch denied him an appearance in an Under-21s game on December 12 but Neil Warnock, then United’s boss, gave him a break with an appearance as a substitute against Middlesbrough in the last first-team fixture before Christmas. On Boxing Day, he scored the last goal in a 4-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
Finding the net has long been Somma’s forte. Chris Sutton saw that talent in him when he took the striker to Lincoln towards the end of the 2009-10 season, a deal which ultimately saved the club from relegation. Minus Somma and ultimately without Sutton, they dropped out of the Football League 12 months later.
Speaking to the YEP in 2010, Sutton said: “He could be stronger in the air and more consistent in his hold-up play but the one thing he does time and again is finish, with either foot and from any range.
“If you get the ball to him in a dangerous position, you don’t hope he’ll score – you think he’ll score. That’s not true of every striker. It’s a nice feeling to sit on the bench knowing a player in your team is blessed with that gift. I wouldn’t say he single-handedly kept us up but he was a major reason for us staying in League Two.” Somma valued Sutton’s input as highly as that of anyone else he worked with. The instruction and guidance of a retired striker whose career played out at the top levels of English and Scottish football seemed to hone Somma’s performances and confidence. South Africa gave him his first cap and United began to acknowledge his value too. The club tied him to a three-year contract in October 2010. That deal expires on June 30 and Somma’s latest operation to remove stray cartilage cast doubt on the possibility of United extending it. He will not play in either of their remaining two games and will have little opportunity to persuade McDermott that he is worth another chance. “It’s very unfortunate for him,” McDermott said.
Somma turned 28 last month and was, to coin Sutton’s phrase, a late-comer to English football. “Get him fit and a lot of clubs would want him,” Snodin says. “Get him fit and Leeds would want him. Everyone there is well aware of what he can do. “But it’s hard to convince people to stick with you when you’ve been out for so long. He’ll have had great treatment at Thorp Arch because the medical set-up there is excellent. He’ll have had everything he needs. The one thing you can’t buy is luck and the poor lad’s obviously had none. I feel for him, I really do.”
Somma came to the fore at Leeds in the same summer as the club sold Jermaine Beckford, their major supply of goals in League One. Somma scored twice on his full debut, earning a 3-1 win over Millwall and was asked afterwards if he could replace Beckford, by then departed for Everton.
“It’s asking a lot,” Somma said, “but why not? I dreamed of this on Friday night.” Two years on, injury might see to it that the fairytale is over.