Manchester United elbow wielder Marouane Fellaini must stop before he causes serious injury, says flailing arm victim John Uzzell

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On the cold days in Plymouth’s boat yards John Uzzell will be accompanied by a nagging reminder of the day his football career was ended by an elbow.

It appears in the form of an ache around his left eye, where a plastic socket and metal plate were fitted to replace the bone shattered by Gary Blissett, 25 years ago.

A grainy YouTube clip can be easily found, which shows Blissett sprinting forward from his own penalty box in pursuit of a long and high, bouncing clearance.

John Uzzell's career was ended by Gary Blissett when he was elbowed in the face during in a game in 1992

Marouane Fellaini appeared to swing an elbow at Robert Huth during Sunday's game at Old Trafford

Uzzell, defending near the half-way line, reaches the ball with his head a split-second before he is knocked unconscious with a broken eye socket, cheekbone and nose. He never played again.

‘The surgeon said the impact was like a 70mph car crash,’ said Uzzell. ‘The bone was bombed and there was a hole in my cheek. They had to peel my face back to fix it. They went inside my nose and cut behind my ear to get the metal plate in. It really shocked me when I found out everything they’d done.

‘I went through a similar operation to have the plate taken out when I tried to play again. I wanted to keep playing but the headaches came back with any physical exertion, once the blood started pumping around.

‘I had a plastic piece put into my eye socket which is still there. I was lucky my eyesight wasn’t damaged. But there were untold problems. I was in a state, trying to get fit. I couldn’t focus on the game. I played in two reserve games but I couldn’t get back to the same standard.

The assault was premeditated and violent and unfortunately missed by referee Michael Oliver at the time 

‘I suffered with post-traumatic stress. I had pains in my head. I’d broken my nose several times and had countless cuts and bruises but this was different. I didn’t want to go in for the headers. My contract ran out at Torquay and I was released. It was life-changing. You go to play a game and in a matter of seconds your life is changed.’

After nearly 400 games for Plymouth and Torquay, Uzzell quit football at 32 and worked for 13 years as a postman. Now 57, he is a boat builder and laminator for Princess Yachts in Plymouth.

His story is far more extreme and disturbing than the case of Marouane Fellaini, who swung a retaliatory elbow at Leicester’s Robert Huth on Sunday. The Fellaini incident is laced with comedy since Huth was pulling at his frizzy hair and Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal veered bizarrely into the realms of sado-masochism when he tried to assess it.

The Uzzell-Blissett incident was completely different, a clash which had more in common with Ben Thatcher and Pedro Mendes in 2006 than the penalty-box grapple at Old Trafford.

Even so, Huth was lucky not to be caught in the face because Fellaini unleashed his arm with enough force to trigger memories of the serious damage done by flailing elbows on the football pitch.

‘All players need to be aware of the consequences,’ said Uzzell. ‘It’s a very dangerous thing to do. I know from personal experience a lot of damage can be caused by an elbow when it strikes bone on bone.

Uzzell following the court hearing regarding injuries the received in a match from Blissett

‘I don’t think football is as bad as it was 20 years ago. The game has changed and there’s a lot less contact but it still needs to be addressed. Elbows should not be in play. You can raise your arms to help you jump as high as possible but you don’t need to be swinging them around once you’re up there.

‘Fellaini might have been provoked but it’s still wrong. He’s a big lad and if he’s waving his elbows around he will hurt people because they’re going to go into faces and heads. Head injuries are severe at the best of times. It is important to make people aware and to have laws in place.’

Iain Hume would concur. Hume required emergency brain surgery in 2008 after an elbow in the head from Chris Morgan fractured his skull. He returned after nine months out and now, at 32, plays for Ponferradina in Spain’s second tier.

Gary Mabbutt, too, was left with an eye socket broken in three places and a cheekbone broken in four places after taking an elbow in the face from John Fashanu in 1993. Mabbutt played again and now often sits on the disciplinary committees assembled by the FA to examine evidence in cases of retrospective punishment.

The former Torquay man says players Fellaini need to be aware of the consequences of their actions

The FA can punish incidents of violent conduct not seen clearly by the referee but the wider problem is identifying intent to injure in a contact sport when the ball is being contested. Uzzell took legal action against Blissett, who was cleared of grievous bodily harm when Graham Kelly, then the FA’s chief executive, told Salisbury Crown Court he witnessed ‘200 such collisions’ each weekend.

Blissett has always maintained that it was an accidental collision and the jury, in an age before high-definition slow-motion replays, could not be sure of intent. But footballers usually have strong instincts when a fellow professional has tried to hurt them.

‘I’ve always thought he did it deliberately,’ said Uzzell. ‘I thought it at the time and I still look at it and think he knows what he’s doing. It’s not a trailing arm. It’s not two people jumping for a header. I won the ball and my head is out there.

‘If he puts his head in we would collide with heads and I’d accept that. I’ve been in many incidents when I came off worst in a collision. This was different. Maybe he didn’t want to do the damage he did but that’s the risk when you go into a challenge like that. What he did wasn’t acceptable.’