Imagine your career in football being cut short because a stray dog shattered your knee cap.

Or how about your toes overlapping from years of jumping in basketball action?

After Cristiano Ronaldo shared a photo revealing his battered and bruised feet – perhaps a small sacrifice for £214million per year – it got us thinking.

What are the most brutal examples we can find of sport taking a toll on its mortal participants?

From bulging ankles to veiny legs and uniquely arranged toes, Mail Sport has got you covered with the rough end of the spectrum.

Elite athletes put their bodies through immense strain to reach the highest performance levels

Cristiano Ronaldo’s feet

Fans were stunned for all the wrong reasons last week when they saw Ronaldo’s feet.

The 39-year-old was cooling off and recovering after scoring the only goal in Al-Nassr‘s 1-0 win over Al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League two days prior.

He posted a picture of himself in a pair of Erakulis trousers, designed to speed up recovery after games, at the £700-per-night St Regis hotel in Saudi Arabia, and in plain sight were his swollen feet.

It’s safe to say that his battle-hardened trotters, looking weathered from all their goalscoring action, caused a stir on the internet.

‘Twenty-two years of pro footy man look at his feet.. he wakes up with crazy pain everyday for sure,’ one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

‘Look at his feet man, imagine the pain everyday,’ another said.

One chimed in with wisdom. ‘The price footballers pay that we don’t get to see.’

Another wrote: ‘This [is] one of the silent battles players have to go through imagine the pain.’

Fans were alarmed to see Cristiano Ronaldo’s swollen feet as he recovered from a game last week

Ronaldo scored the only goal of the game as Al-Nassr beat Roberto Firmino’s Al-Ahli

It’s all very understandable, considering that Ronaldo’s feet have been through the proverbial wars for the last 22 years.

He has amassed a jaw-dropping 1,248 appearances for club and country, getting those feet kicked, trod on, studded, and scraped, week in, week out.

While Ronaldo’s ankles aren’t overly visible, there is a condition called ‘Footballer’s Ankle’.

Repeated kicking, twisting, and bending can cause ligaments to catch and stretch, which can lead to them becoming swollen, thickened, or inflamed.

Pawel Poljanski’s legs

Former professional cyclist Pawel Poljanksi might not be a household name in England, but you’ll have a hard time forgetting his legs.

Poljanski, 33, rode for Tinkoff and Bora-Hansgrohe between 2014 and 2020 in multiple Grand Tours, including two Tours de France.

In 2017, he posted a photo of his incredibly vascular legs after the conclusion of stage 16 and it was a haunting sight to behold.

Veins were bulging through his skin while the region around his knees appeared almost rusted.

‘After sixteen stages I think my legs look [a] little tired,’ he wrote on Instagram, bidding for the understatement of the year award.

Pawel Poljanski showed off his veiny legs after the 16th stage of the 2017 Tour de France

Poljanski spent six years on the professional circuit and rode in every Grand Tour

Dr Bradley Launikonis from the University of Queensland’s School of Biomedical Science was on hand to explain Poljanski’s new pegs.

‘After he’s finished exercising, the veins are showing up. Blood flow is pressurised through the arteries in a highly regulated fashion.

‘The blood can pool there and that’s what’s happening in this extreme case. There is blood pooling in his veins which is why you’re seeing them [so visibly].

‘There’s a high level of blood being pushed into his legs for long periods of time, and it’s still in there post-exercise.

‘It’s not going to happen to someone who’s doing recreational exercise. It’s clearly something that’s only going to happen in elite athletes, like these guys riding in massive cycling events.’

He said elite cyclists experience double the blood flow to their legs compared to recreational exercisers. Dr Launikonis said: ‘The amount of blood normally going down to our legs is five litres per minute.

‘For an untrained athlete, maximum exercise will have 20 litres per minute. These elite cyclists will have double that, about 40 litres per minute. The blood can pool there too and that’s what’s happening in this extreme case.’

Pojkanski isn’t the first cyclist to show off vein-abundant legs. Chris Froome and Bartosz Huzarski were both pictured during the 2014 Tour with post-race bulges.

LeBron James’ toes

LeBron James is the most prolific scorer in NBA history, having amassed over 48,000 points. The number of gasps about his toes cannot be far behind.

Now 39, the Los Angeles Lakers icon has spent years grafting to become an NBA legend, and seemingly at considerable cost to his feet.

A picture of LeBron on holiday resurfaced earlier this year showing his toes uncomfortably bunched up together and went viral.

In the picture from 2013, his big toe was mounted by his second toe and his smallest digit was almost pointing across his foot.

One user on X issued their definitive medical diagnosis. ‘His toes are in permanent jump shot mode.’

Fans were concerned when they saw LeBron James’ feet in a beach holiday snap

A podiatrist estimated that James could be spending up to £5,500 each month to look after his feet

A podiatrist told The Sun last year that James could be spending up to £5,500 per month to keep his feet in good enough condition.

‘For his feet generally, I would say that every month LeBron will be likely spending around £5,500 on podiatric care, orthotics, and custom sneakers,’ they said.

‘LeBron also has a complicated left foot and would need scalpel treatment to get the calluses removed and prevent ulcerations.

‘Now there’s rehabilitation for his right foot on top of that. That’s a huge bill – adding up to £66,000 a year.’

Adam Lallana’s toes

Adam Lallana, now 35 at Brighton, is well versed with injuries. The midfielder has dealt with persistent problems over the last few years of his career.

The hamstring, groin, and knee been among his worst impediments, but how about his toes?

Well, following a Liverpool win over former club Southampton in 2018, Lallana posted a particularly gruesome picture of his toes. This is not for the squeamish.

He had only come on as a 79th-minute substitute, but managed to end up with his toes turned a sickening white-yellow.

‘Any suggestions for defrosting feet,’ he asked on Instagram, a cry of desperation.

Adam Lallana shared a particularly chilling photo of his toes after Liverpool played Southampton in 2018

The midfielder won the highest honours with Liverpool but was regularly bugged by injuries

‘Put away those mingin’ feet, Adam!’ wrote one commenter, who was perhaps the mouthpiece for us all.

Multiple users claimed that Lallana was suffering from ‘Raynaud’s phenomenon,’ a condition where blood stops flowing properly to the toes or fingers. This was not confirmed.

However, a podiatrist, Dr Judith Anders, wrote on a blog at the time: ‘. From the photo, the symptoms appeared similar to Raynaud’s – an abnormal response to cold where the toes change colour.

‘Put simply, the presence of Raynaud’s means nerves that supply blood vessels become over-sensitive to temperature. There may also be an emotional factor. If a person is exposed to cold but also quite stressed, the combination can exacerbate the problem, causing fingers and toes to feel numb and cold.

The blood flow effectively shuts down, the result being a temporary loss of circulation to the affected area. Then, as the vessels dilate and the blood starts to flow again, the digits can change colour, turning blue at first and then bright red.’

Neymar’s ankle

Neymar feared his 2022 World Cup was over when he injured his ankle in Brazil’s opening match against Serbia.

As it happened, he returned after the group stages and helped them to the quarter-finals, but only after recovering from a ridiculously swollen ankle.

The forward shared pictures of his ailment two days after the match against Serbia, with his ankle requiring protective material.

It almost looked painful to walk on, but he kept his chin up.

Neymar shared pictures of his swollen ankle and protective gear on Instagram after a 2022 World Cup game

He returned after the group stages but Brazil were knocked out by Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals

He remained upbeat, captioning the post ‘Boraaaa!!!’, which translates to ‘Let’s go!’.

In the end it was a gutting tournament for the Selecao, who were knocked out on penalties to Croatia in the last eight, despite Neymar scoring in that game.

He must have questioned why it was worth all the recovery effort!

Darrell Armstrong’s feet

Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Darrell Armstrong has had a long and loving association with the NBA, first as a player and then as a coach.

He was there when the Mavericks beat heavy favourites Miami Heat to win the 2011 championship, one of the masterminds behind their success.

He played in 891 NBA games and won the league’s Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1999.

For his troubles, however, he has acquired some stomach-churning kickers.

In 2017, Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki shared a photo of Armstrong’s feet on Twitter, and they’re a sight to behold and remember and have nightmares over.

Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Darrell Armstrong has overlapping toes from his time in basketball

Armstrong has amassed immense experience as a player and coach and helped mastermind the Mavericks’ 2011 championship win

‘DA calls me big mummy but he is working with these dinosaur toes,’ Nowitzki wrote.

His big toe is curving inwards while his second digit has decided to ascend it and take a free ride on top.

It is common for basketballers to develop overlapping toes and wider feet issues.

With the number of quick movements, jumping, and landing, they are under a lot of strain and demand.

Chic Brodie’s kneecap

When Chic Brodie woke up on November 28, 1970, he probably didn’t have a collision with a dog at the top of his list of worries.

Little did the Brentford goalkeeper know that he would be charged into by a mutt mid-match that same day, shattering his kneecap and ending his career.

Brodie was in possession in their Third Division clash with Colchester United when the hound, which had been chasing the ball, targeted him.

The dog pounced at him and he immediately fell in agony, with the pooch scampering away with its tail between its legs.

Chic Brodie probably didn’t imagine his career would be ended by a stray dog collision

However, a hound ran on the pitch as his Brentford side played against Colchester in November 1970

The dog ran into him and he shattered his kneecap, which ended his professional career

It is unclear why play wasn’t stopped beforehand, an alternate reality that could have prevented the injury.

‘In comes that blessed dog again,’ the commentator had cried in disbelief as the four-legged pitch invader ran riot in the run-up to the injury.

Brodie ended up with severe ligament damage and never played professionally again.

‘The dog might have been a small one, but it just happened to be a solid one,’ he reflected.