Dunn: I almost quit
06 Apr 2007 - 17:44:16
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- Dunn: I almost quit
Blackburn Rovers midfielder David Dunn has admitted that he almost quit the game after growing despondent about his injury problems.
Injuries restricted the 27-year-old to only 46 starts in almost four years at Birmingham City and Dunn has revealed that in December 2004 he came close to giving the life of a professional footballer up.
Since returning to Ewood Park in January though, Dunn has made ten appearances for Mark Hughes' side and is enjoying his football once again.
"People always ask me 'are you still fit?' and it does hack me off," he told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
"I just think 'have you not seen the team-sheet the last 10 weeks?'.
"It's very hard for people to change their opinions of me - they think I'm injury-prone. I know Darren Anderton used to get annoyed by it when he was at Birmingham.
"But I've got to get it right and that can only happen with playing games. It was frustrating getting in a position where I was playing really well then I'd pick up another injury.
"I was playing well one Christmas and we played Middlesbrough - there was lots of talk about Stewart Downing for England.
"There'd been talk I could push my way back into the England reckoning, too, but I did my hamstring again. It crossed my mind then quite a few times when I was on my own in my flat in Birmingham that I didn't want to carry on.
"I felt there must be other things out there for me. I started thinking to myself, 'I don't want to be going through all this again' because I couldn't find any solution to the problems. But, luckily, it's been fine since I've been back at Blackburn."