Gary Mabbutt is one of football's nice guys and not someone you associate with being hard but, when you actually look in to some of the things that have happened to him and now he dealt with them, you realise he is actually one hell of a tough bloke. In 1993, Mabbutt received a sickening elbow to the face from Wimbledon striker John Fashanu, leaving him with a cheekbone fractured in four places and an eye socket fractured in three. Mabbutt was understandably out of action for a year - but you didn't hear him complaining about it - and he wore a protective mask upon his return due to the fact that his facial injuries hadn't completely healed. Mabbutt also tried to run off a broken leg on one occasion and, perhaps most impressively of all, he dealt with diabetes on a daily basis, had to inject himself every day, but still managed to carve out a football career at the highest level - he was an inspiration to millions in that regard. He played for Spurs for sixteen years between 1982 and 1998.
