Game-Breaking Injury

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Hero is about to get into a fight with either the Big Bad, The Dragon or one of the Big Bad's lackeys. The fight is one sided in The Hero's favor and the viewer sees one of the most one-sided fights the series has to offer. Pretty soon the villain is already down on one-knee and the finishing strike is prepared. The Hero prepares the attack and it looks like victory is ensured.

But wait, what's this? Instead of performing the signature finishing blow, The Hero has doubled-over in pain clutching their side! What gives?

Well, it just so happens right before The Hero got into this battle, they were injured in another encounter whether it be an everyday accident or while fighting off a few Elite Mooks. The Big Bad quickly notices The Hero's weakened state and quickly shifts the tide of battle. If they really want to ensure victory, then The Big Bad will take every chance to aggravate the injury even more by relentlessly attacking it.

Not to be confused with an Achilles' Heel, characters suffering from a Game-Breaking Injury do not normally possess such a weakness for it is acquired through accident or by their opponent's own doing. Sometimes the enemy in question can recognize the difference in physical ability The Hero has and will first cripple them before they start using their normal battle strategies. Gamebreaking Injuries do not signify the impending victory or defeat of a character, however their presence does significantly alter the fight's outcome.

Game Breaking Injuries can be used either as a plot device or as a means of character development. If The Hero is also a Determinator they will simply push through the pain and use their limb as normal. If The Rival is involved in this trope and is of greater skill than The Hero, in order for them to lose to The Big Bad, they might suffer a Game Breaking Injury in order to weaken them. Sometimes it's a Retired Badass who has an old war injury. If that character is also an Obi-Wan, then you can bet for sure that this injury will be the cause of his undoing. Often a way to make it so You Can Barely Stand.

Truth in Television, of course, especially in the sports world, where severe injuries can end careers and leave players crippled for life.

A type of Drama-Preserving Handicap. A specific type (relating only to the Hero) of Mortal Wound Reveal. If we didn't know about the injury until after the fact, that is Worf Had the Flu.

Examples of Game-Breaking Injury include:


Anime and Manga

  • One Piece has several examples of this trope.
    • In the Buggy the Clown Arc, Zoro was stabbed in his side by one of Buggy's floating hands right before his fight with Cabaji. The wound quickly grew in size on account of Cabaji kicking it multiple times.
    • Zoro had another Game Breaking Injury when he fought Hatchan. After being slashed in the chest by Hawk-Eeyes Mihawk, Zoro had a gaping gash on his chest as well as an incredibly high fever. Once again he was able to win in the end.
    • In the Don Krieg Arc, Sanji was unable to win in his fight against Gin on account of taking so many hits from Pearl beforehand (due to being unable to retaliate or dodge Pearl's attacks due to Gin taking Zeff hostage). Sanji's injuries were so extensive that his body could not even withstand the impact of his own attacks.
    • Another moment where Sanji suffered a Game Breaking Injury was during the Drum Island Arc. After being buried by an avalanche he later helps defend the doctor who saved his life. He's unable to fight due because the old bitch hit him in the back to temporarily paralyze him and keep him from aggravating the wound.
    • After using up all his strength defeating Rob Lucci, Luffy was so injured and exhausted that he could do nothing to protect himself from incoming cannon-fire, requiring his crew to intervene on his behalf to save him.
    • Zoro recently suffered a major Game Breaking Injury from Bartholomew Kuma, and in each of the two or three major encounters since the injuries have slowed him down considerably.
  • In Baki the Grappler, the title character fights Koushou Shinogi, a martial arts master who can cut nerve endings, causing certain limbs to become unresponsive. During the fight, Shinogi had managed to render Baki's entire right side useless.
  • In Hajime no Ippo, the main character has a match against Takuma Saeki, who is better known as The Speed Star. During the match, Seaki resorted to using jabs to swell up Ippo's eye so that he would be unable to see out of it then using this new blindspot as a way to help him deliver surprise attacks.
    • Hajime no Ippo would subvert this trope as well shortly after. Ippo injures his right fist in a training accident right before his fight with Sendo. He resorts to injecting morphine directly into the injured hand and was able to fight as normal.
    • In a rare case where the Hero cripples the villain, Ippo resorts to breaking opponent Ryu Mashiba's arm during a match. Mashiba has had a history of using dirty tactics such as stepping on other boxers' toes and using his elbow to block. The later move he was employing in spades; Ippo decides instead of just avoiding Mashiba's elbow he's going to simply punch through it at the expense of injuring his own fist.
    • There is also the fight of Takamura vs. David Eagle, in which Takamura gets blinded by blood flowing into his eyes. Notably, David Eagle does not abuse this because he is that honorable. Takamura however, is made out of different wood and soon gives David the same injury, making them both almost blind.
    • Taken to a heartbreaking extent in Date's rematch with Ricardo Martinez; Date's special Megaton Punch, the Heartbreak Shot, gets thrown twice- the first time Ricardo blocks it by shear luck with his elbow, shattering Date's right hand. The second time he throws it, his timing and the setup are absolutely perfect and it's a straight shot to the knock-out, except the damage sustained from the first shot robs him of the power he needs to clinch it.
    • Many of the examples given so far are actually Truth in Television. It is very common for fighters to specifically attack a cut created earlier or to keep attacking a swollen eye. Legends like Roberto Duran were notoriously dirty in their fights, but were expert at hiding it from the referee. Arturo Gatti once broke his hand in the middle of a fight and kept using it. Matter of fact, much of what's ever happened in boxing is sometimes too crazy to think it might have actually happened.
      • You can add Sonny Liston blinding opponents with vaseline on his gloves, boxers thumbing the eyes with their punches (less common today), and headbutting and rubbing your head in a cut.
  • Piccolo resorted to using Game Breaking Injuries at the end of the first Dragon Ball series. To gain an upper hand in the fight, Piccolo breaks one of Goku's legs and puts a giant gaping hole in his shoulder. To make sure his opponent felt that particular attack, he later rams his elbow into it.
    • Also, in the movie "Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan," Broly was stabbed through the gut with a dagger. Many years later, guess where Goku punches him.
  • In the final volume of Great Teacher Onizuka, Onizuka is targeted by a group of baseball bat-wielding motorcycle riders who hit him in the head multiple times. What really makes this fight dramatic is that Onizuka is suffering from a brain condition in which if he suffers one more major blow to the head, he will die. The biker gang is well aware of this information.
  • During the fight with Shishio in Rurouni Kenshin, the entire cast feels this. Kenshin's been weakened to the point that he has to string multiple special moves together to even get Shishio to flinch, Saito's legs have been injured, making his signature attack useless, Sanosuke can't properly perform his special attack, and Aoshi can barely fight. Ultimately, Shishio's own Game-Breaking Injury is what does him in as he can't regulate his body temperature following the government's attempt to burn him to death, and after exerting himself for too long, he spontaneously combusts.
    • Also averted earlier, when Saito was trying to prove to Sanosuke that he's not strong enough to help Kenshin: Saito beats him up effortlessly, bare-handed, and specifically avoids aiming for Sano's injured shoulder.
  • Cowboy Bebop: The Movie has Spike taking a gunshot wound to the stomach right before his fight with Vincent in the climax fight. For the most part he doesn't feel it until his opponent grabs at it.
  • The Prince of Tennis has a few of these moments, which are literally Gamebreaking Injuries
    • Kunimitsu Tezuka has an old injury in his left elbow due to the immense amount of strain his techniques put it through and a rather cruel bullying-related incident. In his match against Atobe Tezuka was first to lose, on account of his shoulder being blown out because of his subtle tendencies in favoring his elbow, Something Atobe was very aware of.
    • Kirihara of Rikkaidai has been know to abuse his opponents by hitting them with high speed tennis shots during his matches. Often he likes to hit their kneecaps.
    • Played straight, subverted, Double Subverted, and Triple Subverted by Oishi, who helped save a pregnant woman but injures himself in the process. Unable to play, he instead asks Momoshiro (who had just been kicked out of the regulars) to take his place. This injury shows up again during the Nationals when Oishi challenges Ryoma for the final regular spot. He gets better by the time of the National Finals.
  • Captain Tsubasa also has several characters falling prey to them: Wakabayashi, Misaki (twice), Tsubasa (also twice), Wakashimazu, Dieter M?r, Tomeya Akai, the Tachibana twins, Ishizaki, etc. And like in the Tenipuri case, there are players experts into causing those wounds: Hyuga (though he stops doing so soon), Soda, Stefan Levin...
  • Terry Bogard injures his ankle right before being asked to fight Kim Kaphwan in Fatal Fury and was unable to use any sort of kicking attacks. He managed to come out on top. However, his fight against Krauser did not go as well and his injured legs played a major factor in this loss.
  • Guts' first encounters the Holy Iron Chain Knights in Berserk after getting the hell smacked out of him by Rosine. He still manages to kill several of them before getting knocked out.
    • The Knights were really lucky to get away with so few casualties considering A). The Knights consist mostly of undertrained nobles (whose parents wanted them to serve in the military without actually, you know, getting HURT!) and B). Guts is also known as "The Hundred Man Slayer"... This is not an exageration.
  • During a supposedly easy mission, Nanoha Takamachi was gravely injured in this manner. This caused her to change the cadets' training curriculum, so while they will still be going through hell, they won't be weakened too much to become seriously injured. Then there's what Shamal does to her...
  • In Eyeshield 21, Hiruma was forced to play the second half of the Deimon-Hakushuu game with a broken right arm after a fateful run-in with Hakushuu lineman Rikiya Gaou. Hiruma, is right handed and the quarterback of his team, but because he's HIRUMA, he still manages to pull the Devil Bats through for the win.
    • Sena's legs were already pushed past their limits (to the point his legs were burning up so much that stream was literally coming out of his legs) at keeping up with Agon and he continued on to play throughout the entire again despite the pain.
  • Utterly hilarious variation from Clannad. Yukine's gang prepares for a showdown with a rival group, and Nagisa suggest having a snack- her mother's bread with a certain infamous jam. The gang is instantly KO'ed, leaving Tomoya to fight solo.
  • In Ranma ½, Akane injures her hand while punching down a wall in exasperation. Dr. Tofu fixes it, but warns her not to punch ANYTHING for a while. As she walks back home, she punches the air... and out of nowhere comes the Dojo Destroyer, stepping into the path of her fist, causing her to injure it again. Worse, she was just getting ready to defend the Tendo Dojo from that same guy later in the day. To add insult to injury, the Dojo Destroyer fights exclusively by wielding signs from conquered dojos as weapons, something that an uninjured Akane would have had very little trouble with.
  • GaoGaiGar has an odd example, in that the Game-Breaking Injury was the hero's Finishing Move. Every use of Hell and Heaven strains Shishioh Guy's cyborg body, eventually sending him to the emergency room several times and then warning him not to use it again lest he die. He was, naturally, nearly forced to use it on the next Zonder, but the Goldion Hammer was completed Just in Time.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist Edward fights against #66, an executed convict with his soul bound to a suit of armour, with the binding rune in his helmet. Edward seemed to have won by knocking it off, but was stabbed in the side when it turns out two souls were in the armour (one controlling the head, one controlling the body). Not only was Edward exhausted, but now he was heavily losing blood, and only barely managed to win.
    • Only a few pages later, Edward was confronted with the homonculus Envy. He tried to attack, but the combination of a missing bolt and the wear-and-tear of the previous battle caused his automail arm to fail. Luckily Envy only punched him in the gut and let him live.
  • Monster, in the battle between Inspector Lunge and Roberto, where Lunge forces his thumb into a bullet wound his opponent has taken in order to subdue him. Very rare in that Lunge was a Face at the time, and it was one of the more cringe-worthy versions of it, especially in the anime.
  • In the Tales of Symphonia manga, Lloyd claims that he didn't truly win in his last duel with Kratos because he was weakened from the injury he received defending him.
  • Naruto: According to Jugo, Sasuke had trouble facing Killerbee because the wounds he sustained fighting Itachi hadn't properly healed. Earlier on, the curse mark serves as a Game-Breaking Injury, popping up whenever Sasuke uses too much chakra, and causing him to double over in pain.
    • Also, Gaara delivered a major one to Rock Lee, not only shattering his left arm and leg, but pieces of the bones were imbeded in his spinal column. If not for the fifth hokage, he would have lost his ninja career, his life's dream, and probably his spirit.
    • Lee came close to having it happen again in his fight with Gensho. The latter nearly crushed his leg bone with a cross-block.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has the eye injury sustained by Lockon Stratos in an earlier battle become a significant factor in his death at the hands of Ali Al-Saachez, who takes advantage of the blind spot it creates to deal a crushing blow to his mech, forcing Lockon to abandon it and shoot Ali manually, exposing himself to return fire in the process.
  • In Basilisk, Gennosuke has the best ability of them all—with his gaze he can command his enemies to kill themselves or each other. He gets to demonstrate it early on against some mooks but soon after has his eyes blinded and sealed shut for 7 days, making him unable to use it and rendering him mostly useless for the rest of the series. Liberal use of his ability would have made it too easy for his clan to win the battle. Oboro has her own Evil Eye which nullifies the abilities of any ninja. This too would have given her clan a clear edge in the battle, but she too becomes blinded (though for her it was deliberate so she would not have to fight Gennosuke) for 7 days.
  • In Holyland, a villain gunning to take down Yuu and Masaki sends two hard-hitting gangsters to ambush Masaki on his way to their final showdown. Although Masaki trashes the pair, his leg gets injured and the villain's main enforcer is able to beat him as a result. This allows Yuu to be Big Damn Heroes when he shows up and subsequently defeats the enforcer.
  • In the anime version of THE iDOLM@STER Azusa gets the mumps a few days before a show.
  • In Pokémon Special, Red decides to turn down the position of Viridian Gym Leader because of the painful frostbite he sustained from the previous year's battle against the Elite Four. He does get better, but not before giving the position to Green.


Comic Books

  • In Bowling King, this happened to main character Shautieh Ley literally every time he played for most of the series; In his game with Edgar, he had contracted a fever and was running on several days without sleep. In his match with Jen Ni, his elbow was broken by some of Jen's thugs before the game. In the qualifying game for the God's Hand Cup, he accidentally drank some milk before the game and, being lactose intolerant, well... In the semifinals, he had twisted his ankle falling down some stairs. With the exception of the first one, he won every time.

Films

  • Inverted in Serenity. Hero Mal Reynolds was able to withstand a pressure point strike made by The Operative as he lacked the necessary patch of nerves in the vital area to be paralyzed by the attack.
  • In The World Is Not Enough, James Bond suffers an injury to his shoulder after falling from a hot air balloon. The Big Bad (well, The Dragon) later uses the injury to incapacitate him (which gives him a clue to who The Mole is).
  • Sherlock Holmes has suffered several injuries, mainly one to his shoulder in Sherlock Holmes a Game of Shadows which Moriarty takes advantage of in their theorized fight but Sherlock subverts it by taking a third option.
  • Emperor Commodus in Gladiator stabs Maximus right before their final duel to give himself an unfair advantage. Maximus is too much of a Determinator to let that stop him from kicking the Emperor's ass.
  • Used as a Chekhov's Gun twice in Point Break when Keanu Reeves's Informed Disability (a literal Game-Breaking Injury from his character's football career) prevents him from capturing Patrick Swayze's Big Bad. Also facilitates a Crowning Moment of Foe Yay so powerful it had be to explicitly referenced in Hot Fuzz.
  • Near the end of the tournament in The Karate Kid, the evil karate instructor orders one of his students to break Daniel's leg, which he does, disqualifying himself. Mr. Miyagi sets the injury and he fights the last bout with his bullying nemesis trying to hit the fracture... until Daniel does the kicking equivalent of a FALCON PUNCH!
  • Van Damme's character in Lionheart sustained an injury to his side during a fight. In the final tournament, his opponent uses this to his advantage.
  • In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones hijacks a Nazi truck, runs the rest of the convoy off the road, and knocks almost everyone else off the sides of the truck. But one Nazi manages to shoot him in the arm, and the last Nazi manages to throw him out after punching him in his arm wound several times.
  • In Rumble in The Bronx, Jackie broke his ankle jumping onto the hovercraft, and continued filming with the broken ankle.
  • In Ong Bak 2, the protagonist gets into a massive battle royale against a large group of mooks. He eventually gets wounded by a sword slash to his gut, which he proceeds to bandage quickly to get back into the fight. Later, an assassin who took note of this proceeds to target the wounded area with clawing attacks.

Live Action Television

  • Burn Notice: Michael Westen is a ridiculously badass spy. Doesn't stop him from nearly getting his ass kicked by a drug dealer in the pilot when the guy punches him in his broken ribs.
  • In an episode of NCIS, Gibbs calls upon his mentor Mike Franks to help with a case. While at Gibbs' house, Mike hears a noise, goes to investigate, and ends up confronting the Port-to-Port Killer. Mike manages to shoot him in the leg, but dies in the street after being stabbed with a scalpel. Gibbs later discovers that Franks was dying of lung cancer, and had only weeks to live. This is actually a double Game-Breaking Injury, since Franks lost his trigger finger in a gunfight not long before this, which is why the Port-to-Port Killer survived bringing a knife to a gunfight.

Literature

  • Westley has a game-breaking condition in The Princess Bride, but manages to To the Pain his way into victory regardless.
  • This is Older Than Print. In King Arthur legends, this is how Sir Gawain of Orkney dies. He had an old head wound that was nearly fatally reopened in a fight with Sir Lancelot. Lancelot refused to fight him while he was wounded and sent him to his tent to recover. Ironically, he was nearly healed when news that Mordred had taken over Camelot came. He insisted on going to war with his king, but had his head wound reopened AGAIN in a small skirmish with a bunch of untrained peasants on his way to a ship. He died minutes after the fight was over.
  • The only reason Whiskeyjack died in Memories of Ice was because he had not healed his hurt leg.
  • In Changes, there seems to be one when Harry breaks his back, but the person gets Power At a Price from Queen Mab to be healed, among other things. We see later in Ghost Story that the choice wasn't exactly fair since Lucifer interfered.

Professional Wrestling

  • Submission artists employ this tactic all the time. They will use a variety of locks and holds that target a specific part of the human body until it becomes too painful to use.
    • The Undertaker is very good at selling this trope, often to the point of setting up his finisher only to stop because his knee or foot collapses in pain.
  • A variation of this is when a wrestler (almost always a face) is injured days (or even weeks) before the match begins and is clearly not 100%. The heel will then target that particular body part in the hopes of permanently damaging that foe to the point that they can't continue. This happened A LOT with the Rock for some reason. In 1999, he fought several matches with a supposedly broken arm after Triple H attacked him. In late 2000, during his feud with Rikishi, The Rock had been hit by Rikishi with a sledgehammer in the chest. In 2002, during his feud with Hulk Hogan, the Rock's ribs were injured and taped up.
  • Some matches have a high tendency to cause this, especially the scaffold match. Just competing in one of these matches contributed to Mick Foley's semi retirement at age 34.
  • CZW wrestler Sick Nick Mondo competed in insane, often disgusting hardcore matches incredibly frequently. He had to hang up the tights for good at age 24.

Video Games

  • The popular Fighting Game Def Jam: Fight for New York managed to integrate this strategy into their gameplay mechanics. Characters who specialized in the submission fighting style were able to target their opponents' limbs, and their overall durability was represented by a separate life meter. If the opposing player used a weakened limb to punch or kick, then the damage would greatly be reduced.
    • When Crow stabs you in the back after you storm his joint, you start the battle off with half health.
  • The second Resident Evil Video Game began having their heroes' body language reflect their overall health. If they took too much damage then they would start limping and not move as fast as they normally do. If you were low in health and had to run away from a group of zombies or a huge boss then you were in for a rough night.
  • One of the trailers for Warhammer Fantasy Battle: Age of Reckoning features a rather one-sided battle between a Chaos warrior and a Sigmarite Warrior-Priest. lhe Latter is on his knees, having taken a nasty blow to the side, when suddenly his eyes and weapon come alive with a holy fire. The Chaos warrior just cocks his head and knees him in the injured side. You can watch the whole thing on www.blur.com
  • In Rainbow Six, getting wounded slows you down and decreases your aim accuracy. In Rogue Spear and later games, the characters are actually shown limping.
  • Similarly in Operation: Flashpoint, taking a wound in the arm would make it more difficult to aim. A wound in the legs could just slow you down, or make it outright impossible to stand at all.
  • In The Godfather: The Game you can shoot someone in the knee to drop him to a kneel. A second shot there is almost always a kill.
  • Done in-plot in Yggdra Union. Once the Royal Army has finally dispatched the corrupt priests blocking the way for Yggdra to get crowned, Gulcasa and the Imperial Army suddenly show up and attack you. Although the Royal Army tries to stall for time while the coronation is performed, Gulcasa proceeds to hand you your ass until his body very suddenly starts to give out on him due to side effects of the ritual where he assumed Brongaa's power. Fending him off becomes much more manageable, but being his stubborn self, Gulcasa keeps fighting until his overtaxed body hits the breaker switch on him and he collapses.
  • Jubei suffers one of these off-screen in BlazBlue Continuum Shift thanks to Phantom. Presumably this is a way to justify balancing him, the "strongest creature in the world" against the other characters in the inevitable sequel if he is playable.
  • In Deus Ex, damage to body parts cripples you a certain way, eg if your legs are shot out, you are reduced to crawling.
  • After the Final Boss of Crisis Core, Zack must fight his way through the entire Shin-ra Army. You start the fight out kicking ass left and right with no problem. But then the screen fades out. It cuts back in with several hours having gone by and far fewer enemies on the screen, but now Zack is reduced to limping and all of his attacks have a huge and interruptable windup. Three guesses how the fight ends.
  • In Dwarf Fortress, a character can be crippled by wounds to different parts of the body. For example, broken arms can leave someone unable to wield weapons or shields, a severed motor nerve in the leg can leave someone unable to stand, eye injuries cause blindness, etc. Fortunately, multiple weapons and shields can be equipped to the same hand, and crutches can be used to regain standing ability, albeit at the cost of a speed penalty.
  • Bloodstorm averts this awesomely. The enemy can cut off all your limbs and and leave you a quivering heap on the floor, sliding around on your intestines, but you can still win the fight, using only headbutts.
  • In the Medal of Honor series, allies and enemies limp or crawl when severely injured, however the player doesn't suffer from this.
  • In Demon's Souls, the Game Breaking Injury is death. When you get revived in the Nexus, it brings you back as a ghost that has only half the maximum health your physical self has. This is unavoidable in the tutorial since this is how you get bound to the Nexus in the first place.
  • In Dark Souls, the Great Grey Wolf Sif slowly limps in pain when he is near death.


Western Animation

  • The opening scene of Batman Beyond has this happen to Bruce Wayne, when his bad heart finally catches up to him during a fight with some kidnappers and he is forced to use a gun to make the last attacker step down.
  • In Transformers: The Movie, during Optimus Prime and Megatron's final battle, Megatron is aware he is losing the fight and starts tossing rocks at Optimus. He then throws a shard of metal from a ship at him, cutting his side open, taking advantage of the injury and making it worse by slicing open the wound with an energon sword. Later on while holding Hot Rod hostage, he shoots him in the same wound and also in the chest and face fatally wounding him, but just before he passes out he manages to knock Megatron off a cliff, severely wounding him.
    • The damage inflicted on Megatron in the battle is so severe that he cannot defend himself from Starscream's treachery the way he usually does when Starscream tosses him into space on the way back to Cybertron.
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars has General Grevious being ridiculously impressive and highly adept at combat... and in the last episode, Mace Windu uses the Force to crush his chest, nearly killing him. Cue Revenge of the Sith, where he's coughing and wheezing painfully and jobs to everyone.
  • In Transformers Animated Megatron spends the entire first season in traction after Starscream planted a bomb on him in the first episode and he burned up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Megatron's efforts to fix his Game Breaking Injury make up a good chunk of the first season's plot, and they do pay off in the end. In the series finale Starscream posthumously screws over Megatron again with bombs he planted in the Omega Supreme clones. Megatron survives, but he is in such poor condition that Optimus curbstomps him.

Real Life

  • Gloriously subverted by the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 45. Not only did they come into the game missing 8 of their 22 regular starters, but two of their top players on offense (Donald Driver) and defense (Charles Woodson) left the game in the second quarter leading to both men reportedly giving fiery speeches about overcoming adversity at halftime... it worked.
  • During the 1970 NBA finals Willis Reed played in game 7 with a torn hamstring, an injury which would plague him for years and lead to an early end to his career.
  • Right before the 1994 Olympics, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed in the kneecap by a man hired by Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Shane Stant. Kerrigan would win the silver medal a month later.
    • The gold medalist that year, Oksana Baiul, was also competing injured thanks to an accident at a warm-up event.
  • In professional hockey, teams worry that opposing players will deliberately target an injured player's weak spots and so they give injury information in the vaguest possible terms. An "Upper Body Injury" can be anything from a broken arm to a sinus infection to a concussion.
    • Amazingly subverted in the case of Bobby Baun of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In game six of the Stanley Cup Finals, Baun, who broke his leg earlier in the game, skated on for the overtime and scored the game winning goal. This would propel the Leafs into a game 7 Stanley Cup victory over their opponents.
  • The Minnesota Vikings' Ron Yary was notorious for playing in spite of injuries, particularly the occasion in the 1981 season where he played with a broken foot. Not that this managed to effect his performance at all...
    • Don't forget Brett Favre, whose noted "Ironman Streak" of Most Consecutive Starts at any NFL position (297) involved several broken throwing-hand bones and ankles.
    • Similarly, the Dallas Cowboys' Rayfield Wright came into the 1975 season with a weak knee and managed to shake the most powerful defensive ends in the league regardless.
    • Jack Youngblood of the Los Angeles Rams actually played every single play on defense during Super Bowl XIV against the all-powerful Pittsburgh Steelers with a taped up broken leg. Considering that it was the Rams' first title game appearance in years, it was probably justifiable, as there is was no way he was going to miss the most important game of his life.
    • Not only that, he play in the Pro Bowl that year too.
      • His leg later broke off at the calf when he attempted to kick a field goal. Not a lot of archival footage of that event, sadly.
  • Bill Buckner was actually off the field for much of the sixth game of the 1986 world series, because of his severely injured knees. Manager John McNamara reportedly sent him out because he thought Buckner deserved to be on the field for the Sox series win... Whoops.
  • Normally, a torn ACL and a fractured tibia would be two of these. Tiger Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open on a leg with both. No small feat in professional golf, where you're required to walk four miles a day for four days (and he had to stretch it to a fifth).
  • Robert DiPierdomenico and Dermott Brereton both suffered these during the early stages of the AFL 1989 Grand Final. Brereton was shortly after the match began but was able to kick three goals while concussed and broken ribs.
    • DiPierdomenico broke several ribs and punctured a lung. He played out the game without even knowing how badly hurt he was and collapsed shortly after the match finished.
  • During the 2004 Olympics, Russian judoka Dmitri Nossov lost the semifinal, cutting his eyebrow muscle and seriously injuring his left arm. He still won a bronze medal using just the remaining arm.
  • Football player Franz Beckenbauer played The "Game of the Century" against Italy in the 1970 World Cup semi-finals with his arm in a sling, because Germany had already used their two player substitutions.
  • Kurt Angle famously won a gold medal with a broken freakin' neck.
  • Good tactics in pretty much any type of equally-matched one-on-one REAL fight to the death involving blades. As opposed to working for that tidy one-shot to the chest, neck, or head. Once your opponent is bleeding out, his form is bound to suffer. That's assuming your foe's limbs are all still attached. And this can be done without closing in enough for him to land a Mutual Kill! Hollywood, however, disagrees.
    • Doubly so in knife fights, since one-shot kills with knives are a bit harder to come by.
  • NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty once drove a then-Winston Cup race with a broken back.
  • In Super Bowl XXXIX, Donovan Mc Nabb completed a pass to Terrell Owens, giving him an open-field run to the endzone. However, Owens hadn't fully recovered from a leg injury from earlier in the season, so instead of scoring a touchdown like he would have on a healthy leg, a Patriot defender was able to catch up and tackle him from behind. The Eagles proceeded to fumble on the next play and went on to lose the game by 3.
  • The 2012 NBA season, coming right out of a lockout, is now notorious for various injuries ultimately benching players from any team.
    • Chicago Bulls had Derrick Rose tear an ALC in his left knee; he will miss the rest of the playoffs.
    • Miami Heat had Chris Bosh straining his abdominal.
    • New York Knicks had rookie Iman Shumpert and veteran Baron Davis also tearing their ACL.
    • Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic harmed his back prior to the playoffs.
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