Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw revealed he almost lost his leg after suffering a double fracture in the club's Champions League match against PSV in 2015.
Shaw, 23, is flying high and back in the England squad following a strong start to the season with United but it could have been so much different after his serious leg injury three years ago.
A tackle from PSV's Hector Moreno left Shaw with a double fracture and needing to leave the Philips Stadium pitch on a stretcher as he received oxygen.
Preparing for England's fixtures against Spain and Switzerland, Shaw – set for his international return having not featured since 2017 – said: "I'd be lying if I said I didn't sometimes think about stopping playing football, but I had a lot of good friends and family around me and they helped me through it.
"I nearly lost my leg, I was actually really close to losing my leg and I never knew that until six months after when the doctor told me.
"Of course, if I knew that I would [still] never have stopped, even if he had told me there was a worry, I would have tried [to carry on playing football].
"I want to be playing football, I want to be playing in the biggest games possible, winning trophies - that's my motivation, and like I said I want to be known as one of the best full-backs in the world."
"At the time, they were thinking about flying me back [from Eindhoven] and if I'd have flown back, I would probably have lost my leg because of the blood clots and stuff in the leg," Shaw added.
"I've got - I don't want to talk about it too much - two scars down the side of my leg where they had to cut it open and pull them out because of how severe it was.
"But I don't really care about that anymore. I feel really strong - and my right leg is exactly as it was before my leg break."
