4.5 Million For Loss of Career

Not sure what to make of this;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7553678.stm

Man Utd player wins £4.5m payout

A former Manchester United player whose career was ended when when he was injured in a tackle has been awarded more than £4.5m in compensation.

Ben Collett, 23, broke his leg in a reserve game against Middlesbrough five years ago, at the age of 18.

Boro player Gary Smith and his club admitted liability for the injury.

The total compensation will be decided when sums for future loss of pension and interest on past loss of earnings are determined at a hearing in October.

Sitting at London's High Court, Mrs Justice Swift awarded the player £4.3m and said the final sum payable to Collett was unlikely to be less than £4.5m.

Cup winner

Collett's solicitor Jan Levinson said the award "reflects Ben's talent and potential prior to the tackle as one of the brightest young footballers in the country".

He added: "Having said that, Ben would have preferred to have earned this through a full career in the game."

The match against Middlesbrough was Collett's debut for United's reserve team.

Manchester United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson described him as an "outstanding" player.

Collett joined United's youth academy aged nine and went in to become a member of the club's FA Youth Cup-winning team in 2003.

But his right leg was broken in two places in the match in May 2003.

The compensation will be paid by Middlesbrough's insurers.

'Fantastic focus'

Mrs Justice Swift said had it not been for the injury Collett would have been offered a three-year professional contract with Manchester United.

At an earlier hearing in Manchester Sir Alex said: "I thought the boy showed fantastic focus, a great attitude to work hard and they are qualities to give any player an outstanding chance in the game."

The court had heard that Mr Collett could have earned more than £13,000 a week, making a total in excess of £16m if he had played until the age of 35.

Mrs Justice Swift awarded Mr Collett £3,854,328 for future loss of earnings. The figure for general damages for pain and suffering, loss of amenity and loss of congenial employment was £35,000 . Past loss of earnings was put at £456,095

It's fair enough tbh.

Difficult case as there is a fair chance he would have dropped into obscurity, especially as not many young English players have come through the United academy in the last decade. On the other hand he'd probably only have to be a league one player to have earned that nowadays so it seems like a fair settlement.

Would be interested to see the future loss of earnings calculation ie the multiplier and multiplicant used.

Any solicitors out their with free access to Law Reports?

Bit different from Steve Mills £65,000 when he was retired from football due to his injury in the early 80's