Before he came Sunderland fans told us they had no time for him and he was a sick note

Then I heard our staff felt the same way

And an earlier poster said he just refused to play through any pain. Compare that to Paul McGrath and others like him

A total waste of rations.

Sorely missed, well the sore part is right anyway.

Red and Blue Army!

Quite a bizarre post, given the established facts.

First, his body didn't break down "just when he looked destined to become one of the best". Wickham had broken down (more than once) long before that injury and had spent significant time on the sidelines at his previous clubs. He was an injury risk when we signed him. He didn't suddenly have an out-of-the-blue breakdown at Palace.

Secondly, history is littered with players who don't try their best, who won't play if they're not completely 100% or won't compromise with the pain barrier to keep on playing. The obvious example is Daniel Sturridge.

I don't know how much discomfort Wickham's injuries left him with and neither do you, but it's a well-established fact that some players will do absolutely anything to keep going and others won't even get on the training pitch unless things are just-so.

The fact is loads of players in Wickham's position have tried a lot harder and put up with a lot more than he did to extend their careers (and by the same token, loads would have done what Wickham did). I'm not saying Wickham was wrong not to soldier on through the pain; that's up to him. But the assertion "nobody but nobody would do it" is contradicted by a myriad of well-known examples. You're plain wrong there.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

On the bench this afternoon, good luck from me.

This exactly. I don't know if "malingerer" is overly disparaging, but it's quite clear that he was fragile and when hurt, wasn't chomping at the bit to get back at all costs (which, to be fair, can also have negative consequences if you rush things too much). I think the question is whether he either had a very low pain threshold and simply wasn't prepared to go through barriers other players would to get back on the pitch, or whether he really was a bit of a lazy character and when a doctor said "you should start training in 2-4 weeks" he's the sort who'd say "right, I'll have four".

I think the interesting thing (a bit of a sidebar, but anyway) is that Wickham may have been damaged by being a bit of a silver-spoon player when young. As I recall, he came up with Ipswich in a blaze of publicity while he was still a teenager and he was labelled a can't miss, nailed-on prospect. His first transfer was a big (and presumably enriching) one. It may be that gave him too much, too soon because he never had to fight to establish himself in the way the majority of players do and, thereafter, perhaps he took things for granted, believed his own publicity. He wouldn't be the first talent who failed to live up to his potential for that reason.

When you watch football over a long period of time, you do get a sense of which players will die for the shirt and which won't and it's not always related to talent. Generally, Palace have done well recruiting strong characters as well as good players. Skilful as Wilf is, you get the feeling he demands as much of himself as he does others. The same was true of Yala. And Macca, Jedi, Ledley, Ward; all of them lead by example and give 100%. Wickham always struck me as a bit of an outlier; immensely talented when he felt like it, but not one you could rely on to put in a shift. The two games I remember him most in were the Cup Semi-Final and his two goals at Sunderland, both (for him) high-profile matches where a less than a reliable player would rise to the occasion. Frankly, his contract was one of the relatively few poor judgments Parish has made over the years and I suspect his failure to have the career he might have had can at a minimum in part be laid at his own doorstep.

I'm pretty ambivalent about how things go for him at MK Dons. Don't wish him ill, but I think if he ends up on the trainer's table at a League One club then in truth, he'll just about have found his level.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

If you look at his injury history, luck doesn't seem to come into it. He's simply fragile; he has been from the start. That's not back luck. It's the body you're born with and what you choose to do with it.

He'd had serious injuries of 16 and 34 days out BEFORE he came to Palace (but we signed him anyway). He was out for 5 days with a bruised rib immediately after joining us and within two months of returning from that was out for 83 days with two calf injuries. He followed that with 470 days out as a result of his cruciate tear. When he came back, two weeks after returning he was out for 63 days with a groin strain. He came back two months after that in pre-season (201 and without playing a competitive game, went down for 82 days with another calf injury. 11 days after he came back from that, guess what? He went down for 43 days with a thigh muscle strain. And within 6 weeks of returning from that, he was out for 35 days with the proverbial "knock". The funny bit? That's when we extended his contract by a year. A year during which another knock kept him for 45 days.

Look at those injuries. No broken bones. Only one tear, albeit a serious one. The rest are all soft tissue injuries. That tells you one of two things; Either a). Wickham doesn't put an awful lot into rehab, or b). He simply does not have the body required to play professional sports. The latter may be harsh, but unless he's a slacker (see point A) it's clearly true. Either way, it's not down to luck. And Preston and MK Dons frankly deserve what they get. Any club signing a player with the injury history above is either desperate, dim, or both. As for Wickham, he needs to collect his insurance and retire.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.