Isaac Hayden: ‘Flamini caught me on the inside of my ankle and I heard two clicks’

The Newcastle midfielder takes on his former club Arsenal wondering what might have been but for a tackle in training by Mathieu Flamini the day before he was due to make his Premier League debut for the Gunners

Isaac Hayden had waited a lifetime for the moment. The midfielder had dreamed the dream and, when it came true, the elation was overwhelming. He was 19 years old, a product of the Arsenal academy and Arsène Wenger had told him he was about to make his Premier League debut. It was October 2014, the fixture was Hull City at the Emirates Stadium and Hayden was in the starting XI. What happened next – in training that morning – would turn his life upside down.

“I remember coming out with the ball, I passed it and then Mathieu Flamini has come in,” Hayden says. “He’s come in and caught me on the inside of my ankle, above the bone, and the ankle has just turned. It has clicked. I actually heard two clicks.”

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