While chasing down a ball in the opposition’s box, Barcelona’s Spanish striker David Villa landed awkwardly on his left leg, fracturing his tibia in the process.  The injury occurred late in the first half of Barca’s 4-0 semi-final romp over Qatar’s Al Sadd Club.

The injury is expected to keep Villa out of action for approximately six months, which means he will be sidelined for the remainder of Barcelona’s La Liga season, the UEFA Champions League, and probably next summer’s EURO 2012 tournament as well.

Here is a look at the play that could cost Barcelona and Spain dearly.

Hat Tip – [Dirty Tackle]

After driving to the lane and dishing off a pass to a teammate, Sosa landed awkwardly on his leg, snapping his tibia and fibula in a rather grueling fashion.  He was eventually taken off the court, as members from both teams looked on in disbelief.

Sosa had been playing in Italy with Angelico Biella, but he was hoping to translate a strong performance with his national team into a possible tryout in the NBA.  The injury should keep him out of action for some time, but if it makes him feel any better, with plenty of hard work he could be back before the NBA returns to action, assuming the players and owners wont be reaching an agreement sometime soon.

Here is a look at the injury.  If you just ate, you may want to wait a little while before watching this.

Hat Tip reader Santiago

After failing at his first attempt, Pastrana hopped back on his bike and gave it another shot.  Unfortunately for him and everyone else who was looking forward to watching “Pastranathon” unfold, his second attempt ended a lot worse than his first.

Travis was taken to a local hospital and had to pull out of Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, but he did manage to compete in Sunday’s RallyCross event in a full leg cast after learning how to drive his Subaru Impreza with hand controls that his team constructed in less than 12 hours.

Pastrana was sitting in third place with only a few laps left in Sunday’s race, but he crashed hard into the wall while trying to hold off two-time WRC champion Marcus Grönholm.  Unfortunately, they do not give medals for courage at the X-Games, but one thing Pastrana did win was the respect of X-Games fans everywhere.

Here is a look at his nasty spill from Thursday night.

First is the break.  We have seen some nasty ones in the game of soccer recently, but I don’t believe that any were worse than what Terrell experienced here.  I almost puked when I watched this for the first time, and I was still a little nauseous each time I watched it after that.  I still don’t  know how he didn’t faint or die right there on the spot, which brings me to my next point…

How on earth does Terrell just sit there and act like everything is cool?  “I’m cool as f*ck right now”?  Seriously?  Your f*cking leg is going to fall off!  You may never walk again!  You aren’t cool right now!  Get to a damn hospital!

(Warning: The following video is disgusting and has plenty of NSFW language.)

Hat Tip – [Barstool Sports]

A few weeks ago it was the Seattle Sounders’ Steve Zakuani who was on the receiving end of a vicious tackle that resulted in a fractured tibia and fibula.

This past weekend, it was Javier Morales of Real Salt Lake who was left with a fractured and dislocated left ankle after being on the wrong end of a nasty tackle from Chivas USA’s Marcos Mondaini.

Morales had beaten Mondaini with a quick move to the inside, and with the Chivas forward unable to keep pace with his Real Salt Lake counterpart, he delivered a dirty tackle from behind that left Morales wallowing on the ground in pain.  Mondaini was given a straight red card and will likely receive a lengthy suspension for his actions.

Morales has since undergone surgery to repair the damage, and while he is not expected back in the line-up for the remainder of the season, doctors do believe that he will be able to fully recover from the injury.

Here is a look at the incident.

During a Western Australian Football League game, South Fremantle’s Jaymie Graham was the victim of an unfortunate incident that saw Subiaco’s Danny Hughes dive at his knee and snap his leg in half.  Yes, it is as gruesome as it sounds, so if your stomach is feeling a little weak, you may want to (a) avoid watching this clip, or (b) have a barf bag handy before pressing the play button.

Among the list of injuries Graham sustained in this incident are a dislocated kneecap and damage to all the ligaments around his knee.  As for the injuries you can expect to sustain after watching this clip, that would include an upset stomach and nausea.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Immediately after the tackle, Rangers’ defender Kirk Broadfoot signaled for the trainers and was noticeably disturbed by the sight of Valencia’s displaced foot and protruding bone.

“I just remember sliding in, getting up and looking round to see his bone sticking out,” said the Rangers defender. “I just tried to get the physio on as soon as possible. You see things like that on television and they are not nice, never mind up close.” [Guardian]

Valencia suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle on the play.  He is expected to miss most of the season but doctors believe that he should be able to fully recover and regain his strength and speed once the injury has healed.

Broken legs and not exactly a rarity in the game of soccer, and while we have even seen goalkeepers suffer from such painful injuries, it is not often that they are the ones dishing them out.  But that all changed when a vicious challenge from Boca Juniors goalie Jose Allende snapped the leg of Sevilla’s Jose like a twig during an U-19 match last week.

The young Jose will undoubtedly miss an extended period of time due to the injury.  As for Allende, he was shown a measly yellow card.  If you are thinking to yourself, “that doesn’t seem fair”, you aren’t the only one.

Hat Tip – [Dirty Tackle]

While we have to give all the respect in the world to someone who goes all out all the time, I’m sure he was having his regrets about it as he was carried off the pitch on a stretcher.  Then again, at least he didn’t have a run-in with everyone’s favorite soccer villain, Elizabeth Lambert.  Normally an injury this gruesome only occurs when a player gets tangled up with another player, or on some kind of dirty play.  Or if a 6-year old lays you out of course.

In this case, Coupet apparently did this to himself.  Maybe the French will surrender if there is another World War, but if Coupet is on the front lines, you know he isn’t running.  In fact, he may just break his own leg in front of the Germans in an attempt to gross them out and catch them off guard.

Hat Tip Video – [DirtyTackle] via [WithLeather]

Total Pro Sports – “Rough game” may sound like an oxymoron when refering to soccer, but that is the best description avaliable for Sunday’s Belgian League game between Anderlecht and Standard.  Evidence of that was best seen in Axel Witsel‘s horrifying tackle of Marcin Wasilewski 23 minutes into the match.

With Wasilewski, the Anderlecht defender, chasing down a ball along the sideline, Witsel looked to beat him to it, but when that plan failed, his next target became Wasilewski’s leg.  Replays show the leg snaping at the shin.  As expected, a red card was issued to Witsel and he also fell under the wrath of a few other Anderlecht players.

Blood was seen coming from the leg of Wasilewski as trainers and medical personnel attended to him.  The damage was deemed to be so severe that surgery could not be immediately performed.  Instead, the wounds were cleaned and he will remain on antibiotics until swelling is down and the necessary procedure can take place.

We have seen similar incidents in soccer before, which once again reminds us that although soccer may not share the same aggressive nature as other sports like MMA, is does at times present a similar risk for grusome injuries.

Here is footage of the incident as seen during the game.

And here is how it looked in slow motion.