SOCCER: Ex-player Ebanks-Blake wins first stage of UK lawsuit against surgeon

LONDON – Former English Premier League player Sylvan Ebanks-Blake on Thursday won the first stage of a multimillion-pound negligence lawsuit against a specialist sports surgeon, arguing that unnecessary surgery cost him several years of his professional football career.

Ebanks-Blake was playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in England’s second-tier Championship when he suffered a broken fibula near the end of the 2012–13 season.

He was referred to orthopedic surgeon James Calder, who repaired the fracture and also operated on Ebanks-Blake’s ankle to remove scar tissue and loose cartilage. The ankle had previously been injured in 2005 while Ebanks-Blake was a Manchester United academy player.

Now 39, Ebanks-Blake claims the ankle surgery was unnecessary and led to persistent pain when bearing weight on the joint. He is seeking about 7 million pounds ($9.37 million) in damages in a lawsuit filed at London’s High Court.

Lawyers for Calder argued that Ebanks-Blake’s earlier ankle injury had not been properly treated and that the surgery ultimately extended his career, which lasted until 2019.

However, Judge Christina Lambert ruled that the decision to perform the ankle surgery “was neither reasonable nor logical,” stating that “the ankle should have been left alone and monitored.”

She found that the surgery caused Ebanks-Blake’s ankle pain and that, without it, he “would have returned to his pre-accident pain-free state.”

Lambert said the ankle “would have remained pain-free for a period of three to five years, during which time he would have been capable of playing football at a high level.”

The judge added that whether Ebanks-Blake would have continued playing at a high level beyond that period “is a very different question indeed” and will be decided at a later trial.

($1 = 0.7467 pounds) -Reporting by Sam TobinEditing by Toby Davis/Reuters