I think it's a combination of this; an essentially fragile body, combined with the fact that his nature wasn't to play through the pain barrier and keep going at all costs. You can't change your nature; people are what they are. Some will run through brick walls in pursuit of their goal; others won't. It's a pity. When the injuries hit, Wickham seemed to be just coming into his own at Palace and there's no doubt he was a pretty decent Premier League standard player at that point. But so it goes. I can't imagine another club will sign him up, at least not on anything but a pay as you play deal. Probably time to cash in the insurance policy and move on, as others have said.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

It was certainly a tragic story but not in the way which you're suggesting.

By my calculations he pocketed over £19 million from us over a 6 year period, during which he made 50 appearances and scored 11 goals. That's just under £400k per appearance and £1.7 million per goal.

He presumably can't help his fitness issues and injury record but our decision to not only extend his contract but to then immediately send him out on loan when we had no strikers was one of the most baffling decisions we've ever made.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

Came off the bench tonight for MKDons and surprise surprise he didn’t pick up an injury, maybe there’s life in the old dog yet.

Any news from the warm down?

Red and Blue Army!

He’s started 4 games and scored 3 times so maybe he can still have a few years in the lower leagues as he’s still only 29. It’s not his fault he’s been plagued by injury so I hope it works out for him.

I liked him when he was fit, he was a proper power house and knew how to strike a ball, he scored some decent goals for us as well, West Brom away immediately springs to mind. Good luck to him, I hope he has a few injury free years in the lower leagues