Jurgen Klinsmann’s son almost paralysed by horror injury set to keep him out for well over a year

JURGEN KLINSMANN’S son Jonathan suffered such a horrendous neck injury that he was almost paralysed. Cesena star Jonathan, 29, suffered an awful clash with Palermo ace Filippo Ranocchia in a Serie B match back in April when his team suffered a 2-0 loss away. Jonathan Klinsmann suffered a horrendous neck injury Credit: IMAGO/LaPresse Jonathan was almost left paralysed after suffering a knee to the head Credit: Getty Images – Getty The goalkeeper’s head connected to Ranoccia’s knee and although his scalp was cut and his ears were ringing he still felt this was just another knock. But once the USA international got back up on his feet he quickly realised it was something far worse. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! That didn’t stop him from completing the match, though, with four minutes remaining before full-time but he still had the hindsight to order his centre-backs not to pass him the ball as he stood still. The Munich-born keeper didn’t know he had fractured his first cervical vertebra and sustained serious neck ligament damage and any movement could have resulted to a career-ending injury – even paralysis. The ex-LA Galaxy ace quickly found out that his World Cup dreams were shattered and his season was over but doctors moved fast to make sure things wouldn’t get even worse. Jonathan told The Athletic: “I went to the ground and sat there for a second thinking, ‘Ooof. That kind of hurt’. Then I rolled on my back and felt my neck just really tense up. It was like when you get in a car crash. “So I figured, ‘Maybe I have concussion and whiplash’. My head was bleeding but I never lost consciousness or felt really dizzy. When I got up and the game restarted, my neck felt even tighter. The muscles were obviously going crazy trying to protect me from something. “I told my centre-backs to just keep the ball. Then I tried to stand as still as I could. I could barely move my neck, couldn’t look down. Most read in Football BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK “If they had passed the ball back to me, I couldn’t have looked down to trap it, so the guys just kept the ball around the back until the whistle went. I’m genuinely not sure I would have walked away from that. “At first, I didn’t fully understand the severity of it. The MRI scans weren’t too great and they said, ‘It’s a fracture in your spine. Your World Cup is probably not going to happen, your season is over’. So they were the first thoughts. I was thinking, ‘OK, let’s get through this’. “But it was clearly a lot worse than just a fracture. Luckily, before the game ended my team kept the ball and Palermo were winning 2-0, so they didn’t press. “It’s fortunate. I was really close to a much, much worse scenario if I had done something in those two minutes: like, never playing again, never walking again. So it was bad — but it could have been an unreal amount worse. “I couldn’t use a pillow in the hospital in Palermo because they wanted to keep my spine as straight as possible. I had the neck brace on from the ambulance, which was a pretty generic brace with very little padding. “So my pillow was a thick piece of plastic, and the pressure build-up in the back of my head was from the brace then going down into my neck and the injury.” Jonathan was then set for a “very complicated surgery” that he decided to have in his native Germany. But Jurgen‘s son, who is following in the Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Tottenham legend’s footsteps, thankfully pulled through with a successful operation although his return date is not yet concrete. Jonathan added: “They explained the multiple plans and back-up plans for the surgery, once they had got in there, with all the various contingencies. “They also explained the risk of the surgery was very high. They have to tell you. The part of signing off on the paperwork and signing off on some major risks that weren’t even in your head before. It’s daunting. ‘Very complicated surgery’ “They were saying, ‘You have to understand, it’s an injury very close to the spinal cord and the C1 that connects everything. It’s almost solely responsible for all your rotation, and it’s a very complicated surgery’. “Then hearing the numbers about when I might expect to be able to go home, or to walk, or to play again. They were tough. “The moment of being rolled from my hospital room and passing my family on the way to the operating clinic was… it was just one we had to get through. “It’s a highly-charged time, but luckily the anaesthetist was pretty funny. He made me laugh and by the time you realise he’s making jokes, you’re already asleep. “The second I opened my eyes, I was just asking how it went. The doctor was asking me how I felt but I just wanted to know if it was a success. “Everything had been put back where it should be. Then, as I started coming off the heavy pain medication, I felt much better. I started to walk a bit a few days after the surgery.” Jonathan is the son of Tottenham legend Jurgen Klinsmann Credit: AFP – Getty Jonathan was able to finish the match for Cesena against Palermo Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Comment now