‘Fall from Grace’ – Michael Bridges

Some players are just unlucky with injuries. Constant time on the treatment table ruin their careers and disappear into obscurity. Michael Bridges falls into this category. Once so promising, injuries wrecked his career and he has drifted from club to club, sometimes playing for a club in two different spells, despite being only 31.

Emerging as a promising young striker in the 1996-97 season with Sunderland, Bridges spent four years on Wearside, at a time where Sunderland were relegated from the Premiership but with the help of strike partners Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn, Bridges and Sunderland achieved promotion to the Premiership in 1999. Leeds, just about to embark on their period of massive spending and quest for Premiership and European domination, came calling and signed Bridges for £5 million in 1999.

Bridges was a major hit at Elland Road in his first season, scoring 19 goals and leading Leeds to third place and Champions League qualification. Bridges was the fifth top scorer in the Premiership that season, behind United pair Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, Alan Shearer and former team-mate Kevin Phillips.

Then the injuries struck. Seriously injured in a Champions League tie with Besiktas, Bridges’ career came to a grinding halt and he never scored again for Leeds. Unsuccessful spells at Newcastle, Bolton, Sunderland and Bristol City followed, with the striker unable to stay fit or rediscover his previous form.

The 2005/06 season proved to be a brief resurrection for Bridges. He helped Carlisle United win promotion from League Two and scored 15 goals that season. Hoping to restart his career, Bridges left to join Hull but couldn’t break into the first team and had short spells in Australia with Sydney FC and back at Carlisle, before Hull decided not to renew his contract.

Without a club, Bridges signed with MK Dons on a non-contract basis last summer, but after 3 weeks, he left and returned to Australia to sign for the Newcastle Jets. Joining players like Robbie Fowler in Australia (who plays for North Queensland Fury), Bridges has done reasonably well in the A-League, scoring 4 goals in 15 games, which has earned him a two year deal with the club. It’s just a shame that injuries ruined his career, as we could be seeing a England international who has won multiple trophies instead of a veteran that has had ten different clubs in an injury-filled career.

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