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Very Specific Football Question No.27: What was supposed to happen to Jack Collison?

The retirement of Peterborough United’s Jack Collison at the age of 27 will cause the merest of ripples in football history. A League One player who departs the game with less than 200 career appearances, a few goals, a Championship play-off winner’s medal and a handful of caps for a mediocre Wales team.

A look at Collison’s career trajectory tells a familiar story of steady decline, from a promising start as a Premier League youngster to a slip down the divisions into eventual oblivion. But anyone who followed the midfielder’s career closely will know there was nothing gradual about his demise.

In fact, the early signs at Collison’s first club West Ham were not that promising. Former Hammers manager Alan Curbishley was prepared to sell the 19-year-old to Posh for £300,000 in the summer of 2008, the feeling being that it would be virtually impossible for him to break into an expensively assembled midfield including Scott Parker, Julien Faubert, Valon Behrami and the soon-to-be-fit Kieron Dyer.

But Collison stuck it out, and the arrival of new boss Gianfranco Zola - coupled with a midfield injury crisis - presented him with a rare first-team opportunity on a cold November trip to Middlesbrough. It was Collison’s fourth senior appearance for West Ham, and only his second start, but his performance was remarkably accomplished. Calm and composed in possession, while strong and rangy enough to cope with the physicality of his experienced opponents, he did not look remotely out of place.

In the next match against Everton, Collison’s home debut, he showed West Ham fans another string to his bow - goalscoring. His sumptuous curling shot put the Hammers ahead and, although Everton came from behind to win, there was no looking back for Collison. He became a mainstay in Zola’s free-flowing team, regardless of rival midfielders returning to fitness.

For a young man taking his first steps in the professional game, the 2008/09 season was merely the start of Collison’s journey. But in hindsight, it was much more. It remains the strongest evidence we have of what the player was capable of. Without resorting to undermining Collison with empty hyperbole, the fact that he outshone more experienced Academy products such as Mark Noble and James Tomkins - now established in the top flight - provides one illustration of his potential.

In March, with the Hammers chasing a European place, Collison scored the winner in a 1-0 victory against Manchester City. Above all others, it was this goal - an improvised, delicate lob that most players would not have attempted, let alone executed - which showed West Ham had a special player on their hands. It was the best moment in a triumphant season for Collison, and the natural expectation was that things would only get better.

As one esteemed West Ham blogger wrote at the time, “At this early stage, his game doesn’t seem to have a weakness. He’s got skill, he’s strong, he’s a good passer and - most importantly - he seems to have that invaluable knack of scoring goals from midfield (a la Frank Lampard, dare I suggest?).”

His popularity with Hammers fans aside, there was a touch of Frank about Collison’s game. One difference being that Collison, with 30 league games under his belt, looked far more polished than Lampard did at that stage of his career.

With 12 minutes remaining of the Hammers’ next match, another 1-0 win at Wigan Athletic, Collison went down near the right-hand touchline, having apparently injured his knee. It was an untimely blow to a player in full flow, but there was relief was Collison was able to return to the starting line-up just two months later.

In fact, bringing back Collison so soon was an unforgivable error by the club’s medical team that would have catastrophic consequences for the player’s future career.

Zola wouldn’t have known this as he shaped a West Ham side that summer with Collison at its heart. The Italian boss frequently eulogised about his midfielder that had it all, including time on his side, and there was seemingly nothing standing between Collison and Premier League stardom.

That August, Collison’s father was killed in a motorbike accident while on his way to watch his son play in the Hammers’ match against Tottenham. The player’s response to this tragedy, courageously playing for the club just two days later against Millwall, is perhaps the moment that will define him to many.

But while that heart-wrenching evening demonstrated the strength of Collison’s character, it was the previous season’s displays that showed the magnitude of his talent.

Collison was too hungry to succeed, and too determined to respect the hopes of his late father, to let grief hold him back that season. But what he was powerless to prevent was the recurrence of his injury. Although he managed 23 appearances in the 2009/10 campaign, his knee was not right.

There would be more highlights in Collison’s playing career. A match-winning brace in West Ham’s 2012 play-off semi-final against Cardiff, a thunderous strike against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, an apparent return to fitness that earned him a handsome long-term contract.

But the hard truth was that Collison’s knee issues would never allow him to match the heights of that formidable debut season. The club doctor’s attempt to patch up the initial injury would have a ruinous long-term impact on the player’s fitness. And by the time Collison had surgery a year later, the damage had already been done.

And so Collison’s attempts to kickstart his career at Bournemouth, Wigan, Ipswich and finally Peterborough were all in vain. News of his retirement is upsetting more than surprising.

At 27, he should have been at his peak and playing at the top level. Maybe with West Ham, certainly with Wales at France 2016. Not that many people outside the Boleyn Ground would know it.

A premature end to any career is sad, but for Hammers supporters the most regrettable thing about Jack Collison’s retirement is just how good he was.

Follow @darlingkevin on Twitter

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