Injury-Caused Retirement for Non-QPR Player With Strong QPR Connection

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Brighton's captain Charlie Oatway has been forced to retire from injury. Oatway's QPR connection? He was named after the entire 1973 squad: His full name is Anthony Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James Oatway -Wikipedia/Oataway. Sadly/ironically, the injury which led to Oatway being out of football for 18 months came in a game against QPR, from a tackle from QPR's Marcus Bean - BBC Report
(If Brighton have a testimonial, it would be a nice gesture for QPR to volunteer to be the opponents)

Brighton Official Site - Oatway Forced To Retire By Paul Camillin

Albion club captain Charlie Oatway has been forced to retire from professional football after suffering a second serious injury, just weeks after returning from the broken ankle which ruled him out for over 18 months.

Oatway made his long-awaited return from successful ankle surgery this summer - but in a cruel twist of fate another injury, this time to his knee, suffered in the pre-season friendly at Billericay - left the 33-year-old with little option.

The midfielder ruptured his cartilage in a tackle during the game, and further diagnoses by the club's surgeon revealed he had also damaged the highline articular surface of the knee.

Oatway said, "It has been a nightmare over the past year and a half, but having come back from one major injury I was hopeful of making a full return to action, but to suffer another just as serious left me facing a difficult decision.

"It is with an extremely heavy heart that I have made the decision to quit the professional game - as I always felt I had a few more years left to offer - but I have very little choice for the sake of my future health.

"The last 18 months or so have been very tough for me, but I have been helped through it by my family, friend and the club's medical staff - who I cannot praise enough and have been second to none.

"The club doctors Tim Stevenson and Alistair Raiman; and the medical staff, Malcolm Stuart, Matt Miller and Kim Eaton, have all been incredibly supportive throughout that time - and I cannot thank them enough."

Charlie Oatway
Oatway on his return to action this pre-season

Dean Wilkins added, "To suffer such a serious injury so soon after making such a determined recovery from his broken ankle is horrendous bad luck for Charlie and my heart goes out to him.

"Having finally beaten what had been a persistent and stubborn injury, he was taking a full role in our pre-season preparations and would have been a valuable member of the squad this season - so for him to suffer a second career-ending blow like this is very sad.

"Charlie's presence, both on the field and in the dressing room, will be sorely missed. He has been a tremendous servant to the club over the last eight years and all of the coaching staff and players will miss his presence."

Dick Knight said, "Charlie joined us as part of Micky Adams's revolution and has been an effervescent and inspirational presence ever since. It is sad that after all his hard recovery work over the past 18 months, injury has forced his retirement now.

"But the important job in our community programme I offered him some time ago will now take immediate effect, and I'm certain that Charlie will bring the same leadership qualities to his new challenge with the Albion as he did to his playing career.

"Albion fans will join me in saying thanks for everything Charlie and best wishes for your future career with the club." Brighton Official Site

Brighton Argus - Goodbye Charlie and thanks for the memories
By Brian Owen
Comment
IT might seem a strange thing to say this morning, as Charlie Oatway contemplates the start of life as an ex-footballer, but the popular Albion club captain bowed out in style.

Forget those images of him being taken away on a stretcher on that freezing Boxing Day against QPR.

Forget, if you can, the long months of treatment and re-hab and the short-lived comeback in pre-season at Worthing.
And, if you went to Billericay recently, consign images of his final Albion performance to the recesses of your memory (if you hadn't forgotten that sorry 0-0 draw already).

Try to think about two titles and a play-off success. And remember this fact: Charlie Oatway, not known as a goal machine, scored the winner in his final full game as a professional footballer.

That's why you could say he finished in style.

It was a cracking goal too, fired in from the edge of the box right on half-time to earn a 2-1 win over Peter Taylor's Hull City at Withdean to lift Albion out of the Championship relegation zone.

Glowing with pride after the match, he told The Argus: "I don't really like talking about those things when I'm fortunate enough to score a goal. The gaffer says to get things on target and I just tried to do that.

"What was pleasing was, having gone 1-0 down after being beaten 5-1 at Reading last week, we rolled our sleeves up and had a go.

"We managed to stand strong and everybody stood up and was counted."

That was the spirit which galvanised the Albion team which Micky Adams built. Gathering players from around the lower divisions who he knew, and who he knew could do a specific job, Adams took the Seagulls out of the bottom flight.

They did it at the second attempt in 2000-01. By then, Adams and Albion had had a first season at Withdean, during which Oatway and Paul Rogers emerged as the central midfield pairing.

In some ways, Rogers and Oatway were Albion's version of David Platt and Gazza.

Oatway was the joker. In Q&A sessions, players would always name him as the funniest character in the changing room.

He was there through two titles, the play-offs and a relegation and his injury was seen as a major factor as to why Albion went down in 2006.

He started exactly 200 League games for the Seagulls, the first of them coming in that 6-0 welcome-to-Withdean rout of Mansfield in August 1999.

Even after his injury, he remained club captain and a popular figure around the club.

Just recently, Adam Hinshelwood highlighted how having Oatway to keep him company helped him through the long, monotonous process of recovering from cruciate ligament surgery.

While fans see Oatway as a comedian and a midfielder not afraid to get stuck in, those behind the scenes tell of a more thoughtful character, who has found the last few days and weeks exceptionally hard to handle.

There was, of course, one final irony about the tackle, right in front of the North Stand, which broke his ankle and, as it turned out, ended his career.

And that was that it came against QPR, the team Oatway and his family have always supported.

When he first joined the Seagulls from Brentford, the Sports Argus headline read: "Albion sign the biggest name in football."

We then highlighted how Anthony, Philip, David, Terry, Frank, Donald, Stanley, Gerry, Gordon, Stephen, James Oatway was named after the QPR side which won the Second Division in 1973.

Then came a quote from Adams as he prepared to add Oatway and Paul Watson to his new-look squad.

The relatively new Seagulls boss told us: "Oatway is a midfield terrier who enjoys the physical aspect of the game.

"I think the fans will like him. I've had letters asking me to get players who will die for the shirt and that's the way Charlie plays the game."

Oatway did not disappoint. Brighton Argus